[Vatican] Castel Sant’Angelo
The Mausoleum of Hadrian, also known as Castel Sant’Angelo
Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the Plague of 590 (Roman Plague, an epidemic of plague that affected the city of Rome in the year 59), thus lending the castle its present name.
The popes converted the structure into a castle, beginning in the 14th century; Pope Nicholas III connected the castle to St Peter’s Basilica by a covered fortified corridor called the Passetto di Borgo.
The Papal State also used Sant’Angelo as a prison; Giordano Bruno, for example, was imprisoned there for six years. Other prisoners were the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini and the magician and charlatan Cagliostro. Executions were performed in the small inner courtyard.
In 1656, Christina, Queen of Sweden was said to have fired one of the cannon on top of the Castel Sant’Angelo without aiming it first. The wayward ball hit the villa, destroying one of the Florentine lilies that decorated the facade.