"All roads lead to Rome". Everyone knows that. And where do the thousands of streets of the Eternal City itself lead to? To the famous triumphal arches, which have become a symbol of the former greatness of the emperors? To the Colosseum, the arena of which remembers the roar of the crowd, the torment of gladiators and the first Christians? And if you ask the Romans themselves about this, they will name a dozen more sights, and certainly the Castel Sant'Angelo, a gigantic stone cylinder, about which we have undeservedly written little. But San Angelo has such a rich history …
Colorful cars scurry merrily along the embankment. The waters of the Tiber run quietly. Around - the harsh stone of the walls. Now you can get into this ancient stronghold of your own free will. But 18 centuries ago, most of its inhabitants were brought here under a reliable escort. Then this fortress also served as a prison. And there was no stronghold in the Eternal City more reliable than this former mausoleum of Emperor Hadrian.
Stendhal, who loved to look at colorful fireworks from the castle walls on summer nights, once noted in his notes, not without sarcasm, that all the rulers "considered themselves permanently established in Rome, if only they managed to capture this fortress." The castle was stormed, burned, destroyed more than once, goats grazed on the grassy walls, but the time came - and it was revived. The popes loved him so much that they built themselves magnificent chambers in it, where they hid at any hint of turmoil or external danger.
It was here that a gun salvo cut the life of the hero of Puccini's opera Tosca. From these man-made steep slopes the unfortunate Tosca threw herself down. The Frenchman Victorien Sardou, the author of the drama that inspired Puccini to write an opera, was here, and he chose the place for the finale well. Unless an angel could save Tosca, who had lost her lover. It is a pity that the famous director Franco Zeffirelli, who dreamed of filming the film version of Tosca, never found sponsors for the filming of this film. By the way, he wanted to invite Elena Obraztsova for the role of the heroine.
Fortress tools went down in history thanks to another Italian Benvenuto Cellini. This renowned sculptor and jeweler was no less skillful in military affairs. When the army of Charles V burst into Rome and Pope Clement VII, following the example of his predecessors, locked himself in the castle, Benvenuto, who served as his jeweler, led a battery of 5 guns.
Cellini fought bravely against the enemies of the Holy See. Recalling this siege, he could with good reason write in his memoirs: "I was more inclined to military service than to the craft that I considered my own." However, during the siege, he was also engaged in jewelry business.
Clement VII, preparing to flee, ordered Cellini to melt his jewelry into ingots. The jeweler locked himself in one of the rooms of the castle and in an ordinary stove turned the papal tiaras into golden bars. Carrying out this secret mission, Cellini also managed to command the battery. It's good that dad managed to escape, otherwise the jeweler would have gotten a taste and would have remained an artilleryman until the end of his days.
… The wings of the giant statue of the Holy Angel, crowning the castle, shine in the rays of the sun peeping out from behind the clouds. The face of the angel is light. A yellow halo even appeared above him. This must have been the vision of the Romans in the year 590 from the birth of Christ. Then the inhabitants of the Eternal City were mowed down by a plague epidemic. Desperate townspeople took to the streets. They asked the Lord to deliver them from the evil scourge. As the procession passed by Hadrian's mausoleum, an angel appeared in the sky above it. The plague soon receded. Grateful Romans named the castle in honor of the deliverer from the terrible pestilence.
Today the castle looks much more modest than it was under Hadrian. Travertine, marble, pilasters and bronze have been lost over the centuries. But the external structure of the "Sad Castle" remained practically unchanged. The structure was much more transformed from the inside. The ancient tombs in which the emperor and his family rested, as well as Antony Pius, Mark Antony and those close to them, were badly damaged. The ash bins are gone. And yet the castle has a grandiose appearance and no less grandiose history.
