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You are in: Home » Culture and leisure » Cultural heritage » Museums » Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo
Typology: Art Museum, Historical Museum, State Museum

Address

Address: Lungotevere Castello, 50
Zone: Rione Borgo (Castel Sant'Angelo) (Roma centro)

Contacts

Telephone: 06 6819111
Email: Informazioni e prenotazioni per gruppi: info@tosc.it
Telephone booking: 06 32810 (attivo dal lunedì al venerdì dalle 9.30 alle 18.00)

Opening times

Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.00 to 19.30. (last admission 18.30).
Closed on Mondays, 25 December, 1 January

Reservation is not mandatory but recommended on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
For reservation call Tel. 06 32810 -  from Monday to Friday, from 9.30 to 18.00 or online.

First Sunday of the month
Admission to the National Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo will be free of charge (+ € 1 for the reservation fee online/telephone).

For updates visit > www.gebart.it/musei/museo-nazionale-di-castel-santangelo.

Information

Tickets in > www.gebart.it/musei/museo-nazionale-di-castel-santangelo.

Free under 18 years old
Free admission on the first Sunday of every month.

For all facilities visit the MiC - Ministry of Culture page.
At the ticket office you can pay with Bancomat, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Maestro.

Ticket reservations are recommended on public holidays and weekends (Saturdays and Sundays).
For visiting arrangements for groups and schools, please visit > www.gebart.it/musei/museo-nazionale-di-castel-santangelo.
> Services available inside the Castle

Agreement with

Roma Pass
What the agreement provides:

Roma Pass
What it offers:
- Admission without reservation from Tuesday to Friday
- Admission with compulsory reservation (free of charge) for weekends and holidays (to be made before the weekend or the day of the visit).
Admission to the Museum for visitors without a reservation is allowed within the limits of the remaining availability of the relevant time slot.

Today's events

Description

Castel Sant'Angelo was built by Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century as a mausoleum for himself and his family. Several circumstances ensured that the mausoleum, unlike many other Roman buildings, avoided ruin. The main one was the uninterrupted series of transformations through which it went from being a sepulchre to an impregnable fortress, from a prison to a splendid Renaissance residence, from a barracks to a national museum.

Since 1925, it has been home to the National Museum, destined to house art and history collections as well as Italian Army relics in a monumental setting restored for the occasion. Castel Sant'Angelo, a monument-symbol of the Roman practice of reusing ancient Roman buildings, stands with its imposing bulk on the right bank of the Tiber not far from St. Peter's Basilica, at the end of the perspective line of Bernini's Ponte Sant'Angelo.

The complex and stratified history of the monument can therefore be traced back to the three main nuclei consisting of the Roman vestiges of the imperial mausoleum (the helicoidal ramp with its four gigantic vents, the urn room for the ashes of the imperial family with the three overlapping rooms created in the terminal cylinder of the mass), the fortified castle (with the roundabout and the four bastions dedicated to the evangelists) and the papal flats (which include the small jewels of the chapel of Leo X and the Stufetta of Clement VII, that is, his bathroom with frescoes by Raphael) is both the substance and the frame of the exhibition itinerary, which boasts heterogeneous collections of sculptures, paintings, marble artefacts, weapons, furniture and objects of various origins, partly recovered from the excavation of the helicoidal ramp of the mausoleum, partly donated by the National Roman Museum of the Baths of Diocletian and the disbanded Industrial Art Museum, partly acquired on the antiques market and following the exhibitions set up to celebrate the Universal Exhibition of 1911.

The art gallery, small but of remarkable quality, is made up of the Menotti and Contini Bonaccossi collections and is arranged in the rooms of the historic flats according to a museographic criterion of stylish furnishings: The heterogeneity of the works is compensated for by the preciousness of the artists, among whom Crivelli, Lotto, Dossi and Signorelli stand out, while the fulcrum of the sculpture collection is the stone angel by Raffaello da Montelupo, now in the Cortile d'Onore (Courtyard of Honour) but until 1752 placed at the top of the castle and linked to the medieval legend according to which, at the time of Gregory the Great, its appearance caused the end of a plague.

The arms collection, on the other hand, which is housed in the rooms of Pius IV at the top of the monument, is more of a refined antique than an heirloom, with a selection of pieces that are certainly linked to the history of the castle; it includes arms, outfits and uniforms from the 15th to the 19th century.

The tour guides the public through the physical places - courtyards, rooms, loggias - and above all through all the historical phases. The itinerary leads the visitor to Hadrian's burial cell, following in the footsteps of the procession that carried the emperor's ashes; it takes the visitor up the walls, into the rooms of the papal flats, into Cagliostro's prison to the spectacular Terrazza dell'Angelo, from where Tosca decided to throw herself into the Tiber; and out, for the first time, through the monumental portal built by the Sienese architect Giovanni Sallustio Peruzzi, son of the more famous Baldassarre.

During the tour you can also visit the so-called Sale Cambellotti. These three rooms were intended in 1925 to house the relics of the Italian army and were decorated with paintings and stuccoes by Duilio Cambellotti, one of the greatest interpreters of Art Nouveau. Of particular importance is the Sala dei Labari, so called because it was intended to house the labarums, i.e. the military insignia, of the assault units, those units, such as the Arditi, which during the First World War had the task of breaking through the established fronts: this is why Cambellotti painted Savoy, papal and Lombardy flags there and depicted eagle wings in the frieze with hands brandishing all sorts of weapons.

Educational activities

Services

» Bar
» Bookshop
» Guided Visits
» Library

Other museums of the network

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See also

Culture and leisure › Green › Gardens, villas and urban parks
Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Architectural and historical heritage
Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Archaeological heritage
Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Architectural and historical heritage

For more information

Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Museums
Culture and leisure › Cultural heritage › Museums
Last checked: 2023-12-27 13:50