Covered Walkway at Castel Sant’Angelo
People like us can just look back at history and see everything in a heartbeat. It is totally different when you are there living history. Take the Castel Sant’Angelo, it was built to be the tomb of Emperor Hadrian, although it looks like a castle or fortress, it was supposed to be a tomb. Imperial tombs tend to be very impressive hence the castle look. However, after the Roman empire, came the rise of Christianity. Italy was divided into Papal states and large swathes of the country became the dominion of the pope, yes much like a king or emperor. In general, popes tend to be lovers of art, and historical artifacts and structures were quite important to them.
Impressive Ceiling at the Castel Sant’Angelo
The Castel Sant’Angelo just so happened to be in the center of Rome which was the capital of the papal states. It is not surprising that the pope came to live and work here. Naturally, there were a lot of changes to be made for this place to be acceptable as the residence of the pope. As we go through the Castel Sant’Angelo, there were a lot of places where seem to be more church like. In particular, the ceilings of the passageways and rooms were painted not unlike the ceilings of the baroque churches. There were also papal seals carved in the walls, see if you can spot them!
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