The Mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian is one of the most significant monuments of Roman antiquity. Originally built as an imperial tomb, it was later transformed into a fortress, then a papal residence, then a prison, and finally into the current museum.
The National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo has been enriched since September 1, 2012, by an additional exhibition space of great interest dedicated to the history of Castel Sant’Angelo. In the recently restored Alessandro VI rooms, part of a project for the museum’s redevelopment and enhancement, the exhibition unfolds through a series of engravings, prints, paintings, and reconstruction drawings to illustrate the many diverse and often misunderstood historical phases that, over its millennial history, have modified, conditioned, and changed the monument.
Divided into four sections, the history of Castel Sant’Angelo is illustrated by period prints, scenic views, and interesting ideal reconstructions of the monument, as imagined by the creativity of Renaissance artists and architects, from its construction up to the 19th century, in a path that highlights its intense and continuous use.
Built as the mausoleum of Emperor Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus (76-138 AD) and a dynastic tomb for the Antonine family, with Emperor Aurelian first and then with Honorius, the imposing structure was included in the walls of Rome and transformed into a kind of fortress for the city’s defense. Due to these prerogatives, it acquired the name castellum from that time, to which, in the early Middle Ages, the name sancti Angeli was added, from the legend of the archangel Michael appearing to sheath his sword to signal the end of the plague.
Its proximity to Saint Peter’s, its strategic position controlling the northern entrances to the city, and its closed and imposing mass made Castel Sant’Angelo a center of political interests, inseparably linking its fate to that of the Church ever since, in 1367, Pope Urban V demanded the keys to the Castle as a condition for the return of the Curia to Rome.
Since then, numerous architectural interventions and new constructions were carried out, aimed on one hand at updating the building to renewed defensive needs, with the construction of bastions and the pentagonal wall, and on the other hand to make it increasingly comfortable and suitable to the Curia’s aspirations, assuming under Paul III Farnese (1534-1549) the appearance of a true princely residence.
Up to more recent times, when the castle was used exclusively as a political prison, called Forte Sant’Angelo, and finally when it was transformed into a National Museum in 1925. Its charm remains unchanged, as does its ability to impact the collective imagination of the city of Rome, with the “Girandola” event that is renewed every year on June 29, the feast of the city’s patrons, a theme dedicated to the fourth and final section.
