CASTEL ST. ANGELO
Rome, Italy
The Castle of St. Angelo began its long history as Emperor Hadrian's Mausoleum in AD 139 which Hadrian himself designed and ordered the construction of. The Mausoleum was square with a massive central rotunda capped by a further square tower topped with a statue of the Emperor on his quadriga in the guide of Helios, the sun god. Today's Castle still follows the plan of the Mausoleum, indeed much of the structure of the central "keep" is Hadrian's.
The Mausoleum stayed in use until well into the reign of Aurelian (270-275 AD) but by this time it also formed part of the fortifications of the Aurelian Wall which surrounded Rome and is still largely intact.
In about 520 AD Theodoric turned the Mausoleum into a prison and it was more heavily fortified. Slowly its role shifted from part of the Wall to a separate fortification in its own right. The Castle was Rome's state prison until 1901!
The first major action the Castle saw as a Castle was during the Gothic wars. In 590 a great plague afflicted Rome. Gregory the Great who was Pope at the time had a vision crossing the bridge in front of the Castle of an angel standing on the roof, blazing with light holding a sword of fire. From that point onwards the Castle became known as the Castel of Sant'Angelo. A marble statue of Gregory's vision was added to the top of the roof tower in 1544 which was replaced by a bronze version in 1752.
The Castle's proximity to the Vatican meant that it became more and more associated with Papal protection as time passed. During the Middle Ages in particular it became a virtual home for Pope's often under siege from others. Pope Leo IV made the Castle part of the Leonine Walls which surrounded the Papal properties, this "Leonine City" was a forerunner of today's Vatican City. Pope Nicholas III went one step further an added a raised, covered and fortified passageway known as the "Passetto" or Borgo Corridor between the Vatican Palace and the Castle. This passage is still clearly visible from both the Vatican and the Castle, although it is now open to the air.
The outer wall of the Castle with its heavy corner towers was added by Pope Alexander VI, subsequent centuries saw tinkering with the Castles buildings but it essentially remained in this form until the modern day.
The views from the walkways and particularly the terrace are quite possibly the best in Rome, from here you can see across the City to the Pantheon, the Vittoriano and so forth and in the other direction you get the clearest possible view of the mass of St. Peter's and the Vatican City. No wonder then that Puccini chose this terrace for the finale of his opera Tosca, the heroine throwing herself off the terrace in her grief to her death on the cobbles below.
© Text copyright - Raving Loony Productions and Andrew J. Müller
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2002
