This book traces the thousand-year history of Hadrian's Mausoleum - today's Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. If you have already visited it or if you have not yet done so, it will serve as a Guide to discover its most hidden and unknown aspects, thanks to splendid photographs.
It was built by the emperor Hadrian as a new dynastic tomb and completed in 139 AD, inspired by the Mausoleum of Augustus (which is located in the Campus Martius, not far from the Pantheon), to mark the ideal continuity between the two emperors.
You will discover the original parts of the Mausoleum that are still preserved, hidden inside the medieval, Renaissance and Baroque additions. For example, the ancient entrance Vestibule from which a Spiral Ramp starts, where ritual processions once took place that reached the Burial Chamber.
The latter, also called the Hall of the Urns, was covered in precious marbles and inside it was the Emperor's red porphyry sarcophagus, of which only the lid remains (now in St. Peter's Basilica).
The Burial Chamber was illuminated by two large window-tunnels, thanks to which we propose a new and unprecedented reconstruction of the Mausoleum, revealing the hidden symbolic meaning of its extraordinary architecture.
The book tells of its rebirth in the Christian era, with the legendary apparition of the Archangel Michael who put an end to the plague of 590 AD. After being sacked by the barbarians and robbed of its marbles and precious decorations, it was transformed into a fortress, due to its cylindrical tower-like shape.
It withstood the sieges of the Saracens and the barbarians. To defend themselves, the Romans broke up the sculptures that decorated it and threw them on the besiegers. During the terrible Sack of Rome by the Landsknechts in 1527, the Pope found refuge there thanks to the secret escape route of the Passetto.
You will discover the splendor of the papal apartments: over the centuries, each pontiff wanted to enrich and enlarge them, calling some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance: Antonio da Sangallo, Michelangelo, Sallustio Peruzzi. The frescoes were entrusted to Pinturicchio and Raphael's pupils such as Luzio Romano and Perin del Vaga.
You will read the incredible story of the Aelius Bridge leading to the Mausoleum, which few know: at the end of the nineteenth century, during the construction of the new embankments of the Tiber river (the Lungotevere), the original ramps and even the Roman paving were rediscovered. Unfortunately they were demolished but are documented by rare images and drawings of the time that we recovered.
Finally, the book reveals the very essence of the Imperial Power, thanks to the illuminations discovered with Archaeoastronomy, which were linked to the deified emperor Hadrian and depicted as Sol Invictus driving the Quadriga of the Sun and therefore holding the reins of the Universe.
