Castel Sant' Angelo in Rome (Italy)

The Castel Sant' Angelo, known also as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, is the tomb of emperor Hadrian and his successors which was erected in 135-139 on the left bank of the Tiber River (close to the Vatican City). The castle was built on the square foundation (side 89 m, height 15 m), on which the round mausoleum was built, roofed by a dome with cypress trees. On the edges of the mausoleum’s walls the marble statues were places. On the walls of the basis inscriptions enlisting the people who were buried in the mausoleum were carved (Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus and Caracalla). In 271 the mausoleum was included into the system of Rome defensive walls. The name Castel Sant' Angelo was created in the 6th century, when pope Gregory the Great saw a figure of an angel with a sword in his hand over the building during the epidemic in Rome.