(_Castel S. Angelo. Permissions required: see page 353._)
It was covered with white Paros marble, and decorated with statues of
the gods and heroes, the works of Praxiteles and Lysippus, which were
hurled upon the heads of the Goths. Erected by Hadrian, A.D. 130. The
porphyry sarcophagus, which is supposed to have contained his remains,
is now used as the font in the chapel on the left in S. Peter's.
Procopius thus describes it: "The tomb of the Emperor Hadrian is
situated outside the Porta Aurelia. It is built of Parian marble, and
the blocks fit close to one another without anything to bind them. It
has four equal sides, about a stone-throw in length; its altitude
rises above the city walls; on the top are statues of the same kind of
marble, admirable figures of men and horses."
Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, were all
buried here. It was first turned into a fortress A.D. 423. Popes John
XXIII. and Urban VIII. built the covered way connecting it with the
Vatican. One of the barrack-rooms contains frescoes by Pierino del
Vaga and Sicciolante, another by Giulio Romano. A circular room,
surrounded with carved wood cases, once contained the archives of the
Vatican. A large iron-bound chest contained the treasury. Some dark
cells built in the thickness of the walls are shown as the prisons of
Beatrice Cenci (?), Cellini, Cagliostro, and others. Tradition asserts
that Gregory the Great saw S. Michael standing over the fortress
sheathing his sword as a sign that a pestilence was stayed; to
commemorate which the castle is now surmounted by a figure of the
archangel in the act of sheathing his sword. This old castle served
for a fortress during several ages, and its first cannon were cast out
of part of the bronze taken from the roof of the Pantheon.
_The Borgo Nuovo leads to_ the Cathedral, passing, _on the right_, the
Church of S. Maria, built on the site of a pyramid to Honorius, 423
A.D., which is represented on the doors of S. Peter's.