The Castel Sant Angelo is built on and around Hadrian’s Mausoleum in Rome and contains nearly 2000 years of history within its walls. The Google satellite image below shows the layout of the castle far better than can be seen from the ground.
Visiting Castel Sant Angelo
We were lucky in that our visit was during Covid and also in February so not exactly high season. There was a reasonable wait but not too bad. If I was going to visit in high season I’d certainly opt for some form of jump the line tickets. There is a link in the section below but there are plenty of options for tickets and combining this with other attractions.
My Experience
We visited the castle twice during our 2022 break in Rome, detailed in my travel blog here.
Our first visit was a Saturday afternoon and we trudged all the way to Hadrian’s Mausoleum from our hotel. This, as the name kinda implies, was built to house the remains of Emperor Hadrian and various other members of the Imperial families. It was then modified by the Papacy to act as a defensive bastion and a fortified passageway was built linking it to the Vatican.
Again we had vaccination and ID checks before paying €13 each and going in, starting the well laid out route. I was immediately irritated that almost every trace of Imperial Rome had gone – there were niches for statues but they were empty and there was nothing to indicate that the emperors had been interred. I’d have thought some replica statues, sarcophogi or information boards would have helped but maybe the info was on an audio tour or guided tour that we didn’t do.
We probably spent a couple of hours in the building, including a coffee break on the roof terrace. There were several ornately decorated rooms but nothing was a patch on Palazzo Farnese although the views from the various levels of battlements were the real winners. It also gave a sense of scale of the defences as they were pretty impressive. I was tempted to watch the sunset but Deb was getting chilly so we left and had a quick walk on the riverside before the very long walk to the hotel, arriving around 7PM.
We returned a couple of days later after a long day of sightseeing. Our final walk, much to Deb’s relief, was back to the Castel Sant Angelo for me to do some night photos, after dinner. It was very pleasant to walk along the Tiber again, in the dark and enjoy the view without being able to see all the dog poo and graffiti! More buskers, this time with a harp and playing something new, completed the experience. We took a taxi back to the hotel as we’d already walked 20k.
Castel Sant Angelo Photo Gallery
History
Castel Sant’Angelo, also called Hadrianeum or Sepulcrum Antoninorum, structure in Rome, Italy, that was originally the mausoleum of the Roman emperor Hadrian and became the burial place of the Antonine emperors until Caracalla. It was built in ad 135–139 and converted into a fortress in the 5th century.
It stands on the right bank of the Tiber River and guards the Ponte Sant’Angelo, one of the principal ancient Roman bridges. In plan, the fort is a circle surrounded by a square; each corner of the square is protected by an individually designed barbican, or outwork, while the central circle is a lofty cylinder containing halls, chapels, apartments, courtyard, and prison cells.
In 590 Pope Gregory the Great, conducting a penitential procession to pray for the end of a plague, had a vision of the archangel Michael sheathing his sword over the castle, signifying the end of the plague; from that incident came the structure’s modern name and the marble statue of the archangel that surmounts the building.
Throughout the Middle Ages the castle served as a refuge in times of trouble, especially for the popes, who could reach it from the Lateran through a protected passage. Clement VII took refuge there from the troops of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V during the sack of Rome in 1527. The papal apartments were substantially reconstructed for their residents, and they contain significant Renaissance decorative paintings; one lavishly decorated bedroom is attributed to Raphael.
The popes used part of the castle as a prison, and eventually the building became a military barracks and prison. The military use ended in 1901, when the castle’s restoration was begun. Part of it is now a museum of military history.
References
Tickets can be bought online here.
Some of the stories about the Castel Sant Angelo are on the site here.
The history above is copied from the Brittanica site here.