Castel Sant'Angelo

The history of Castel Sant'Angelo substantially coincides with that of Rome and it isimpossible to separate these two entities so deeply penetrated: the changes, the upheavals, the miseries and glories of ancient Urbe punctually appear to be reflectedin the massive amount that almost two thousand years is mirrored in the sluggishwaters of the Tiber.
In 1367, the keys are handed over the building to Pope Urban V, to request the returnof the Curia in Rome from exile in Avignon. From this point on, Castel Sant'Angeloinextricably linked its fortunes to those of the popes, who adapted the residence of refuge in times of danger. Thanks to its robust, and fortified its reputation forimpregnability of the castle is home to the Vatican library and the Treasury, but will also be adapted to the court and prison.
With the change of function, appearance and layout of the castle are reshaped through a long series of actions that unfold over four centuries. New structures will amount topre-existing ones, altering, changing the function, sometimes erasing, in a process of transformations unbroken seem to slip into one another seamlessly.
The long and varied history of the building, with its thousands of metamorphosis seems to have sedimented in the complicated maze of underground rooms, balconies, stairs and courtyards that make up the current structure of the castle.