Castel Sant'Angelo

Castel Sant'Angelo (pronounced [kaˈstɛl sanˈtandʒelo] Italian for 'Castle of the Holy Angel'), also known as Mausoleum of Hadrian (Italian: Mausoleo di Adriano), is a towering rotunda (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 popes later used the building as a fortress and castle dedicated to Saint Michael the Archangel, and it is now a museum. The structure was once the tallest building in Rome.

Hadrian's tomb

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole, was erected on the right bank (or northern edge) of the Tiber, between 134 and 139 AD. 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 put 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

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.