Castel Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo is in Rome, a city in Italy. It sits beside a river called the Tiber.

It has been a tomb, a castle and a prison. Now it is a museum!

Castel Sant'Angelo stands on the right bank of the Tiber River in Rome, a few steps from the Vatican. It began as a mausoleum, a large tomb building, for the Roman emperor Hadrian and his family.

Over almost 1,900 years it has been used in many ways: as part of the city's defenses, a fortress, a home for popes, a prison and, since 1925, a national museum.

The national museum that runs it says Castel Sant'Angelo can be thought of as a monument, an archaeological area and a museum at the same time. It was built as an imperial mausoleum, then became a fortified residence, a prison and finally a monument-museum.

Rome's tourism office places it on the right bank of the Tiber, a few steps from the Vatican, to which it is linked by the Passetto di Borgo. It is also known as the Mole Adriana and the Mausoleum of Hadrian, and UNESCO names the Mausoleum of Hadrian among the major monuments of antiquity in the Historic Centre of Rome World Heritage Site.

Later builders added new walls. They dug a ditch called a moat. This made it a stronger fortress.

On the bridge in front, ten marble statues stand in a row.

In 1367 the keys of the castle were handed to the pope, and over the next centuries builders made it stronger and grander. Antonio da Sangallo the Elder built four pentagonal (five-sided) bastions and a moat, and rooms were decorated as a fine home.

Between 1667 and 1669, ten marble statues were placed along the bridge in front. They were made by the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the students of his workshop.

The national museum says the keys were handed to Pope Urban V in 1367, and that later work both strengthened its defenses, with ramparts and a pentagonal wall, and made it a magnificent papal residence, at its peak under Paul III (1534–1549). Rome's tourism office credits Antonio da Sangallo the Elder with the four pentagonal bastions and the moat, and notes the Passetto di Borgo, a passage built under Pope Niccolò III that links it to the Vatican.

In 1667–1669 Pope Clement IX had ten marble statues placed along the Ponte Elio, made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his workshop; from then on it was called Ponte Sant'Angelo.

In this photo, it is night. The castle glows with lights, and statues stand on the bridge.

This photo was taken at night in December 2014, from the bridge in front of the castle. You can see the round building, a statue on its top, a wall with square notches called battlements, and statues on both sides of the bridge.

Today Castel Sant'Angelo is a national museum. From its terraces, visitors can enjoy views over Rome.

The photograph (15 December 2014, by Livioandronico2013, a Wikimedia Commons quality image) looks along the Ponte Sant'Angelo toward the castle: the lit round building with a statue on top, the battlemented outer wall with its entrance, street lamps and statues on the bridge.

After becoming Italian state property in 1870, when it served as a military prison and barracks, it became a National Museum in 1925; it was restored in 1933–1934, when the moats and ramparts were repaired and the ground outside the walls was laid out as a garden. The Passetto di Borgo is open on guided tours.