Writing Assignment 8 - Solo Trip to Castel Sant' Angelo

Yesterday, a group of 11 of us went down the street to Castel Sant' Angelo. From the first time we drove past it on our first bus ride, I've wanted to visit it. My need to see it increased even more when I remembered that it was the location of the infamous battle scene in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I must admit, after vising the Castle, then rereading Dan Brown's description of it, I was thoroughly confused on where Brown got his information. In fact, after visiting many of the sites described in Angels and Demons, I'm fairly certain that he actually never visited Rome. But that's a discussion for another blog.

Outside Castel Sant' Angelo

From the outside, the place looks like a giant fortress, impossible to breach. I suppose that's a good thing, because at one time, it was used as a fortress for attacks against the city. The center circular building was the Mausoleum of Hadrian, built by Hadrian himself  between 123 and 139 AD. It was re-purposed as a military outpost between 270-275. In the late 6th century, it was renamed to Castel Sant' Angelo because of the miracle of the angel appearing on top of the mausoleum that ended a plague in Rome.

When you enter the castle, you immediately being climbing the heliocoidal ramp. It's exactly what it sounds like - a ramp (no steps) that goes all around the edge of the circular mausoleum. That felt like it took forever... Carolyn was joking that she should she paid 8.50 to walk around in an endless circle. Ramps are also a lot more tiring than stairs are. By the time we surfaced, we were all pretty tired.

Inside the heliocoidal ramp

Sorry the picture is blurry. My camera doesn't do that well in dark places without the flash. You can see that it still has a very ancient feel to it. The lights are indeed lightbulbs with electricity, but the covers they use and the lack of brightness make it feel like they are torches.

We finally make it out (and I mean finally!), and we find this courtyard with another statue of an angel. Not THE archangel on top (that comes later), but another beautiful one all the same. There was a bit of construction going on, so you can see the fence around the statue. There were also some building materials off to the side.

The statue in the first courtyard

From the courtyard, we entered into a gallery called the Sal'a dell Apollo. Like many galleries and museums, they did not allow photos to be taken, so no pictures of the amazing artwork. Many of the pieces were of course, religious, but I was surprised at how many were not. What also surprised me was the wide array of the time periods that the paintings were from. Some dated all the way from the 15th century, while there was one as modern as 1911.

After the gallery, we made our way out to a covered walkway that circles around the mausoleum. It gave us spectacular views of the city. There were also statues scattered around, some tiny doors to papal rooms, and a cafe, where the pigeons were certainly not afraid to come close.

Beautiful views!

Tiny doors!

Leaning in for a smooch!

We went upstairs to more galleries with amazing artwork. What stood out in this gallery were two unique (at least to Rome) pieces: an ancient Greek vase, and an old Japanese war helmet. All the other pieces were focused around Rome or Christian Europe, so adding in these two pieces hardly made sense. They were extremely interesting.

We made our way up a tiny narrow, curved staircase on last time, and arrived on the top balcony. What a view! We got a near 360 degree view from what seems to be one of the tallest places in Rome. The sight was absolutely beautiful, and it took my breath away to look around. We got a great look at St. Peter's Basilica!

St. Peter's Basilica

Also, sitting right above us, was the statue in honor of the Archangel that miraculously appeared to save the city. It is an extremely moving statue with a powerful pose. Normally, when I think of angels, I think of tiny cute babies with wings, or someone soft and gentle. Not this angel. This angel came in to save the day, and succeeded. My picture isn't the from the best angle, but you can see by him pulling out the sword that he's powerful and means business.

The Archangel comes to save the day!

Finally, we decided to run around on top of the fortress walls. I'm not sure if it goes all the way around because we didn't make it that far, but I would assume it does.

Running around the fortress

All in all, it was a spectacular experience. My only complaint about it was that the map was not clear at all, and I feel like we missed some things. For example, on the map it says there's a room with Cupid and Psyche (one of my favorites), but we couldn't find it anywhere! We think we know where it was hiding, but we believed that those doors were locked and were private. But we had a lot of fun!