Castel Sant'Angelo

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Castel Sant'Angelo from the Ponte Sant'Angelo from
Illuminated Castel Sant'Angelo with Angel's Bridge
Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, view from the west

The Castel Sant'Angelo (Italian Castel Sant'Angelo or Mausoleo di Adriano ) in Rome was originally built as mausoleum for the Roman emperor Hadrian and (117-138. Chr.) Built its successors and later by various popes to quadrangular castle rebuilt. From 1901 the building was no longer used as a castle. Castel Sant'Angelo has been a museum since February 13, 1906.

history

Attempt to reconstruct Hadrian's mausoleum in the Museo della Civiltà Romana

Construction began while Hadrian was still alive and was completed in 139 under Antoninus Pius . This was preceded by the construction of today's Angel Bridge as Pons Aelius Hadrianus in the year 133. The Angel Castle was intended as a mausoleum for the emperor. The tomb was known in late antiquity under the name Hadrianeum. Today the name Hadrianeum is used for the Temple of Hadrian in the Piazza di Pietra.

The following personalities were buried in the mausoleum of Hadrian:

The tomb was in the shape of a flat cylinder (64 m in diameter, 20 m high) made of peperin (volcanic rock) and opus caementicium (Roman concrete ), covered with Roman travertine , a limestone from Tivoli , which was placed on a marble- clad square base (each according to information 84–89 m side length, 10–15 m high) was built. The top of the cylinder was probably designed as a garden with cypress trees . There was probably a small round temple in the middle. At the top was a quadriga that showed Hadrian as the sun god. But there are also other reconstructions based on a high stone cone instead of a garden and temple.

In the middle of the mausoleum was the burial chamber, above which the following inscription, written by Hadrian himself, was placed:

ANIMULA VAGULA BLANDULA
HOSPES COMESQUE CORPORIS
QUAE NUNC ABIBIS IN LOCA
PALLIDULA RIGIDA NUDULA
NEC UT SOLES DABIS IOCOS.
Little soul, wandering, tender,
Guest and companion of the body,
That you will now vanish there
Where it's pale, rigid and bare,
And you won't joke anymore as usual ...
Burial chamber

  • Antique ramp to the burial chamber

  • Burial chamber

  • Burial chamber

  • View from above to the burial chamber

The architectural style may seem unusual, but there were similar buildings at the time, such as the mausoleum of Emperor Augustus on the Marsfeld , of which only a ruin remains today, or the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia Antica . The style goes back to older Etruscan tombs .

When the city wall of Emperor Aurelian (the Aurelian Wall ) was reinforced by the Magister militum (Heermeister) Stilicho under the Emperors Honorius (395-423) and Arcadius (395-408) , the solidly built mausoleum was integrated into the fortifications as a citadel .

In the 6th century, the Gothic king Totila recognized the importance of the castle for controlling the city and expanded it as a base.

In the 15th century the Castel Sant'Angelo became a fortress under Popes Alexander VI. and Nicholas V rebuilt. At the same time, the popes furnished themselves splendidly furnished apartments, with the Sala Paolina from the 16th century being one of the most beautiful papal apartments that can still be visited today. Alexander VI. built the four bastions and the papal apartments. Sixtus V set up the treasury , which also contained part of the secret archive .

The Castel Sant'Angelo also served as the Inquisition's prison in later years . Benvenuto Cellini and Alessandro Cagliostro , for example, were prisoners in Castel Sant'Angelo.

Towards the end of the 18th century, the popes neglected the place until the castle was confiscated by the soldiers of the French Republic in the 19th century. In 1870 the fortification became the property of the Italian state and served as a fortress and prison. The halls were partly set up as a museum and the castle was made accessible to the public. It was restored in the 20th century.

Refuge and prison of the Popes

The Castel Sant'Angelo with the connecting passage ( Passetto ) to the Vatican

From the 10th century the Castel Sant'Angelo was owned by the Popes and served as a refuge in case of danger. During the pontificate of John XIII. (965–972) occupied the Crescentier , who temporarily controlled the city of Rome and the Popes, the Castel Sant'Angelo - at that time called domus or castrum Crescenti . In July 974 Pope Benedict VI. , a partisan of Emperor Otto I , strangled by a priest instigated by the Crescentine antipope Boniface VII . In April 984 Boniface also had the antipope John XIV imprisoned and probably starved or murdered. Johannes died on August 20, 984 in Castel Sant'Angelo. A few decades later, in 1012, Pope Benedict VIII took it back into sole papal ownership. In 1084 Pope Gregory VII entrenched himself here in front of Emperor Heinrich IV. The 1277 under Pope Nicholas III. Built Passetto di Borgo or Corridoio di Borgo is an above-ground and integrated into the wall and about 800 meters long passageway to Apostolic Palace in the Vatican . During the great sack of Rome, the Sacco di Roma , by the troops of Emperor Charles V in 1527, he served Pope Clement VII as an escape route from the emperor's soldiers. Then he holed up in the castle for a month. Pius VII also fled from Napoleon Bonaparte . In 1561 Cardinal Carlo Carafa was executed by strangulation in Castel Sant'Angelo .

origin of the name

Bronze statue of the Archangel Michael, by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt was created
The marble archangel, created by Raffaello da Montelupo , can be seen today in the courtyard of Castel Sant'Angelo, the Cortile dell'Angelo

The complex was given its current name in 590 when the plague raged in Rome . Pope Gregory I the Great is said to have seen the apparition of the Archangel Michael above the tomb , who announced the end of the plague to him by sheathed the sword of divine wrath. Since the plague really ended, the statue of the angel on the top of the building still reminds of this episode today. From 1577 to 1752 there was a marble angel created by Raffaello da Montelupo , which can now be seen in the courtyard, the Cortile dell'Angelo . This was replaced in 1752 by the current bronze figure designed by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt . In addition, a chapel built around 610 by Pope Boniface IV was dedicated to the archangel .

Architecture and interior design

Overall, the structure in its current form can be divided into five levels. A 122 m long ramp leads upwards in a spiral shape from the lowest level. On the second level there is the prison and storage rooms for wheat and oil. The third floor is the military one with two courtyards. From the Cortile dell'Angelo you can get to the papal apartments and the museum .

The most important level is the fourth. Here you will find the papal apartment, a series of rooms with mannerist frescoes by Perino del Vaga , Giulio Romano and other artists from the school of Raphael and the halls of Paul III. , Clemens VII. , Clemens VIII. And Leos X. The loggias by Giuliano da Sangallo and Donato Bramante as well as the Sala del Tesoro (treasury) can also be seen here. Clement VII had a private bath - called La Stufa - set up here for himself. This small room is richly painted with representations of secular themes (nymphs, putti, sea creatures) in fresco technique. The bath water originally flowed from a naked bronze Venus figure into the masonry tub. This figure was later removed. At the very top you finally come to the terrace, where next to the bronze angel you can see the so-called arm sinner's bell (Campana della Misericordia), which reminds of the transience of beauty and the cruelty of the world.

The museum (Museo di Castel Sant'Angelo) has been showing the history of the building as well as weapons, furniture and everyday objects in 58 halls since 1901.

Others

Rome, view of the Tiber to the south with the S. Angelo Castle and the St. Peter's Basilica , oil painting, Rudolf Wiegmann , 1834

In the opera Tosca by Puccini , the protagonist commits suicide by jumping from the Castel Sant'Angelo, what the building in the early 20th century helped to new prominence.

In the novel Illuminati (2000) by Dan Brown , the secret society of the Illuminati once met in Castel Sant'Angelo , and the assassin was also hiding here.

literature

  • Heinz-Joachim Fischer : Rome. Two and a half millennia of history, art and culture of the Eternal City. DuMont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-5607-2 , pp. 351-352.
  • Anton Henze , Kunibert Bering, Gerhard Wiedmann: Art guide Rome. 5th, revised edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-15-010402-5 , pp. 88-91.
  • Willy Pocino: Le curiosità di Roma. Storie, aneddoti e segreti legati a luoghi, tradizioni e monumenti esistenti o scomparsi di una città irripetibile (= Tradizioni italiane. 31). Newton & Compton, Rome 2004, ISBN 88-541-0010-2 .
  • Tina Squadrilli: Castel Sant'Angelo. Una storia lunga diciannove secoli. Misteri, segreti, curiosità e personaggi di uno dei più famosi monumenti del mondo (= Quest'Italia. 284). Newton & Compton, Rome 2000, ISBN 88-8289-462-2 .

Web links

Commons : Castel Sant'Angelo  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Castel Sant'Angelo  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A graffito in the Sala delle Prospettive in the Villa Farnesina relates to this : 15A28 - what should I write and not laugh the la (nz) servants make the babst run
  2. ↑ Homepage of Castel Sant'Angelo , accessed on March 21, 2018.
  3. ↑ Willy Pocino, Le Curiosità di Roma, page 94

Coordinates: 41 ° 54 ′ 11 "  N , 12 ° 27 ′ 59"  E