Visiting Saint.Angelo Castle,Rome:The unique monument having undergone numerous structural transformations throughout history starting as the tomb of Emperor Hadrian to becoming a fortress,the Popes residence,a prison & finally a multifaceted museum

On 6/9/22 ,We paid a visit to the Castel Sant’Angelo which was initially used as a mausoleum for Roman Emperor Hadrian & his family & it was comverted into a fortress in the 5th century.Finally it was decommissioned to make it a museum in year 1901. The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as Castel Sant’Angelo : Castle of the Holy Angel, is a towering cylindrical building in Parco Adriano, Rome, Italy. It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and is now a museum. The structure was once the tallest building in Rome. 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.

While a majority of the monuments from the Roman era are in ruins, the breathtaking Castel Sant’ Angelo, Rome hasn’t managed to stand the test of time for almost 2000 years. This unique monument has had several structural and architectural transformations throughout history, starting as the tomb of Roman Emperor Hadrian to eventually becoming a fortress, the Pope’s residence, a prison, and finally a museum. The museum currently houses artwork, frescoes, sculptures, and much more from various moments in Roman history.

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian’s mole, was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between AD 134 and 139.Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian’s ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who died in 138. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury Room, deep within the building. Hadrian also built the Pons Aelius facing straight onto the mausoleum – it still provides a scenic approach from the center of Rome and the left bank of the Tiber, and is renowned for the Baroque additions of statues of angels holding aloft instruments of the Passion of Christ.

DECLINE OF THE ST.ANGELO CASTLE :
Much of the tomb contents and decorations have been lost since the building’s conversion to a military fortress in 401 and its subsequent inclusion in the Aurelian Walls by Flavius Honorius Augustus. The urns and ashes were scattered by Visigoth looters during Alaric’s sacking of Rome in 410, and the original decorative bronze and stone statuary were thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in 537, as recounted by Procopius. An unusual survivor, however, is the capstone of a funerary urn (probably that of Hadrian), which made its way to Saint Peter’s Basilica, covered the tomb of Otto II and later was incorporated into a massive Renaissance baptistery. The use of spolia from the tomb in the post-Roman period was noted in the 16th century – Giorgio Vasari writes:

…in order to build churches for the use of the Christians, not only were the most honoured temples of the idols [pagan Roman gods] destroyed, but in order to ennoble and decorate Saint Peter’s with more ornaments than it then possessed, they took away the stone columns from the tomb of Hadrian, now the castle of Sant’Angelo, as well as many other things which we now see in ruins.

PAPAL FORTRESS, RESIDENCE AND PRISON :

The popes converted the structure into a castle, beginning in the 14th century; Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St Peter’s Basilica by a covered fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo. The fortress was the refuge of Pope Clement VII from the siege of Charles V’s Landsknechte during the Sack of Rome (1527), in which Benvenuto Cellini describes strolling the ramparts and shooting enemy soldiers. Cellini was incarcerated in the castle due to embezzlement, murder and sodomy.
Leo X built a chapel with a Madonna by Raffaello da Montelupo. In 1536, Montelupo also created a marble statue of Saint Michael holding his sword after the 590 plague (as described above) to surmount the Castel.Later Paul III built a rich apartment, to ensure that in any future siege the pope had an appropriate place to stay.
Montelupo’s statue was replaced by a bronze statue of the same subject, executed by the Flemish sculptor Peter Anton von Verschaffelt, in 1753. Verschaffelt’s is still in place and Montelupo’s can be seen in an open court in the interior of the Castle.
MUSEUM:
Decommissioned in 1901, the castle is now a museum: the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant’Angelo.Inside the Castle you will find-The Hadrians Tomb, the Papal qurters, Fortress, execution grounds & well -preserved Frescos.

VIEWS OF ST. PETERS SQUARE BY NIGHT:

After our visit of the St. Angelo Castle being in the close proximity ,we took a brief round of the St.Peters Square to get some views of the square by night .

My dear readers may kindly point out any incorrect information in my above writeup needing any corrections! I am truly indebted to Wikipedia & for the invaluable information on the subject !Happy Reading !