The Mausoleum

The "Castel S. Angelo" ("Moles Hadriani" in Latin) has been a prison and a castle and it's the most popular building in Rome according to the Romans. Emperor Hadrian began to build the Mausoleum in 135 and it was completed in 139 by his adopted son and successor Antoninus Pius.

The mausoleum was designed by the architect Decrianus as a grave tomb for the emperor and his successors. It consisted of a square basement (84 x 84 m) an d a round superstructure with a diameter of 64 m, surrounded by a colonnade. Above this was a earthen tumulus (= a burial mound) with on its top the bronze triumphal charriot of the emperor. Also on the corners of the substructure were statues just as between the pillars of the rotunda. In the Mausoleum the emperors and the members of the Royal Family from Hadrian to Septimius Severus were intered.

The Mausoleum is connected with the other bank by means of a bridge, which is still in use and was called "Aelius". This bridge was built in 134 A.D.. The Pons Aelius is now called "Ponte San Angelo". There are statues of angels on it, made by Bernini (a very famous architect, who lived in the 17th century) and his students. Only the three arches in the middle are Roman antique, the other parts were renovated in the 19th century. On the mausoleum stands a tower, which is very beautiful. During 60 years the mausoleum was used as an emperor grave tomb and in 271 A.D. it became part of the Aurelian Wall.

The mausoleum of Augustus was taken as a example for this mausoleum.

In 410 the tomb was plundered by Alarik and in 537 the defenders hit the statues to pelt the Goths. That's why it became a fortress. Once Rome was afflicted by a epidemic. Gregorius, the pope, got a vision of the archangel Michael, who stood on top of the mausoleum and put his sword in the sheat. From that moment the epidemic was over. The Romans built at the place where the archangel appeared a chapel. That's why the castle is called: "Castel S. Angelo".

In the building itself there are four models of the tomb in different phases of his existence. One shows the original tomb, one shows the tomb as it is at this moment, without other parts that were built later. The other two show the castle as it was in the time of Alexander VI (1492-1503) and Urbanus VIII (1623-1644). There is also still a part of a lift shaft, built by Leo X (1513-1521), which is very thick. The corridor to the sepulchral chamber of Hadrian was in classical times paved with black and white mosaic. Some fragments of this mosaic are preserved. The corridor had four ventilating shafts. One of these shafts is converted into a jail.

In the mausoleum there are also some chambers with beautiful frescoes called after the popes who built them. There's also a room, which is part of the original Roman construction phase, which is called "Sala della Giustizia" because there resided in the 16th and 17th century the court of justice and Perin del Vaga has painted there the Angel of Justice. In the Castel S. Angelo is a round room which was till 1870 the strong-room of the popes where they kept their secret archives. After 1870 the archives were removed to the Vatican.

An other interesting fact is that pope Nicolas III in 1217 ordered to build a underground corridor between the Vatican and the "Castel S. Angelo". This corridor was used by the popes as a way to flee when the city was besieged. Part of the corridor was overground and is still visible.

The darling of Hadrian was Plotina, who was first married to Trajan but present at his death in Cilicia, she probably facilated the succession of Hadrian, long her favourite. Hadrian honoured her on the coinage of 117-18. She died in 121 and was consecrated: Hadrian commemorated by a temple at Nemausus and another, dedicated to Trajan and Plotina, in the "Forum Traiani".