St. Angel Bridge

The St. Angel Bridge is a bridge in the centre of the city of Rome, leading to the castle of St. Angel through Tiber.

It was erected by order of Emperor Hadrian to link the centre of the then Rome (on the right side of Tiber) with the Mausoleum built by his order as well. It used to be an eight-span construction with marble plates and columns.

At the turn of the 8th century the name of the building was changed as it was no longer a mausoleum. Because of that the bridge was renamed as well for the Bridge of St. Angel. It resulted with creation of the legend saying that during the plague in Rome the then pope George I the Great saw an angel above the castle holding a sword in his hand. In 1450, 200 people died at the bridge squeezed or thrown down to the river by a pressing crowd heading for the St. Peter's Basilica. Decorative sculptures of St. Peter and St. Paul were placed there in 1534, whereas in 1535 twelve statues representing characters from the Bible were added. It was possible thanks to fares paid by those passing the bridge. In the 17th century those statues were replaced by ten baroque angels with attributes made by Bernini and his pupils. The master himself created two of them with an inscription I.N.R.I and the Crown of Thorns - today those are located in the Sant Andrea della Fratte church. On the bridge there are copies of them.