The story of this place
Emperor Hadrian built this massive cylindrical mausoleum, completed in 139, to hold his ashes and those of later emperors. In the Middle Ages it became a fortress guarding the Tiber crossing, then a papal stronghold—linked to the Vatican by the elevated 'Passetto' corridor, an escape route popes used more than once. In the 1527 Sack of Rome, Pope Clement VII fled along it and held out inside while mutinous imperial troops looted the city; the artist Benvenuto Cellini claimed to have manned its cannon. It also served as a prison and place of execution. Named for a vision of the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword to end a plague in 590, it is crowned by a bronze angel.