Castel Sant'Angelo

The castle and its history.

The history of Castel Sant'Angelo substantially coincides with that of Rome and it is impossible to separate these two entities so deeply interwoven: the changes, upheavals, miseries and glories of the ancient Urbe punctually appear to be reflected in the massive amount that almost two thousand years is reflected in the sluggish waters of the Tiber.
Born as a tomb by Emperor Hadrian wanted in a peripheral area of ancient Rome and this fulfills its original function until 403 AD, when it is included in the Aurelian walls by Emperor Honorius west. From this moment begins a 'second life' in the guise of castellum, stronghold advanced over the Tiber River to protect the city. Many Roman families if they vie for possession, which seems to ensure a leading position within the order of the City confused: it will be a stronghold of Senator Theophylact, Crescenzi, Pierleoni and Orsini. It 'just a Orsini pope - Nicholas III - to make realize the Passetto, which links the Vatican to the Castle, in a physical continuity and ideal.
In 1367, the keys to the building are delivered to Pope Urban V, to solicit the return of the Curia in Rome from exile in Avignon. From this moment on, Castel Sant'Angelo inextricably linked its fate to that of the popes, which are easily adapted to the residence of refuge in times of danger. Thanks to its solid structure and strengthened its reputation for impregnability and the castle houses the Archives of the Vatican and the Treasury, but will also be adapted in court and prison.
With the change in function, appearance, and the system of the Castle are reshaped through a long series of actions that unfold over the course of four centuries. New structures are joined to those existing, altering, modifying the function, sometimes erasing in a process of continuous transformations that seem to slip into each other seamlessly.
The long and varied history of the building, with its thousands of metamorphosis seems to have unsettled the complicated maze of underground rooms, balconies, stairs and courtyards that make up the current structure of the Castle.
The original structure and the subsequent accretions interpenetrating, overlapping and merging with one other, and giving life to a body faceted and complex, full of symbolic meanings, and historical layers.

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j.