Castel Sant'Angelo

Our visit to this unique structure enabled us to to retrace the entire history of Rome, the "Eternal City", all in one place. Famous stories, movies, operas, executions, and historic events took place or were inspired by Castel Sant'Angelo. 

 Its construction was commissioned in the first century AD by Hadrian, the Roman emperor, as a mausoleum to house his remains and those of his descendants.
(Below is a rendering of what the mausoleum might have looked like.)

Unlike other Roman monuments, this mausoleum never fell into disrepair over the centuries.  It thrived through an uninterrupted period of transformations. It went from being a tomb to being fortress, from a prison to a Renaissance dwelling and from a barracks to a national museum. Here are some of our favorite snapshots from our visit to Castel Sant'Angelo....

Lavish rooms of the Pope's apartments.

View from the top into the courtyard where stacks of cannonballs
waited to be thrown down on attacking armies.

There's the Vatican is in the distance. 

This is the Passetto (built in 13th century), an enclosed, elevated half-mile-long walkway that, over the centuries, provided passage from Castel Sant'Angelo to the Vatican City for popes and prisoners.  

A tourist and a seagull enjoying the view and breakfast. 

The name "Castel Sant'Angelo" is from a medieval legend that in 590 Michael the Archangel appeared before Pope Gregory the Great to announce the end of a plague. 
There is his statue, behind us, at the tippy-tippy-top of the castel.