Sant'Angelo

Ponte Sant’Angelo began in AD 139, when the emperor Hadrian had it built to carry people straight to his mausoleum, now Castel Sant’Angelo. The bridge’s old name was Pons Aelius, from Hadrian’s family name, and it quickly became one of Rome’s key crossings over the Tiber. What gives this span its special character today are the ten angels placed along it in the late 17th century, each one linked to the Baroque redesign associated with Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his workshop. They turn a practical crossing into a very Roman kind of procession: stone, river, empire, and devotion all layered together in one view. The bridge also belongs to Italy’s national heritage, which makes sense for a structure that has connected the city to one of its most important monuments for nearly two millennia. And just beyond it, Castel Sant’Angelo still keeps the bridge’s original destination alive in the landscape.

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