Castel Sant'Angelo

The Castel Sant'Angelo, initially known as the Mausoleum of Hadrian, is a fortress located in Rome, reachable via the Ponte Sant'Angelo. It is an end point to the Passetto di Borgo, and is found on the banks of the Tiber river.

The castle was commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a tomb for himself and his family. Later, during the Renaissance, the building was used by the Papacy as a fortress, castle, and prison.

History[edit | edit source]

Roman era[edit | edit source]

The tomb of Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole, was constructed between 135 and 139. It was originally a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga.^[1]

Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in 138, together with those of his wife and his first adopted son, who died that same year. Furthermore, the remains of succeeding emperors were placed here as well. Hadrian also built the Ponte Sant'Angelo, formerly known as Pons Aelius, to connect the tomb to the rest of Rome.^[1]

Destruction[edit | edit source]

Much of the tomb's contents and decorations were destroyed once the building was converted into a military fortress in 401. The urns and ashes were scattered by looters during Alaric's sacking of Rome in 410, and the original decorations were thrown down upon the attacking Goths when they besieged Rome in 537.^[1]

Liberation of Rome[edit | edit source]

On 28 December 1499, the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze scaled the castle during his infiltration of the Cappella Sistina, in order to assassinate Pope Alexander VI.^[2]

In 1501, upon Ezio's return to Rome, he infiltrated the Castel Sant'Angelo to rescue an imprisoned Caterina Sforza and assassinate Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia.^[3] However, while he successfully rescued Caterina,^[4]^[5] he was unable to kill either of the Templars, after he discovered that Rodrigo was away from the castle and that Cesare had left for Urbino moments after Ezio's arrival.^[3]

Soon after this assault, the castle came to be guarded by several Papal Guards and French soldiers, courtesy of Cesare's alliance with the French General Octavian de Valois.^[6]

In August 1503, Ezio once again infiltrated the Castel Sant'Angelo through a side gate,^[7] with a key he had obtained from Lucrezia Borgia's lover, Pietro Rossi.^[8] At a window looking into the castle's Papal apartments, he witnessed the murder of Rodrigo at the hands of Cesare, after the former refused to give him the Apple of Eden. Ezio subsequently discovered the Apple's whereabouts from Lucrezia, and left the castle to retrieve it before Cesare.^[9]

Following his arrest in December 1503,^[10] Cesare was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo until he managed to escape in 1504. After he was re-captured by Ezio as he tried to flee Rome on the Tiber, Pope Julius II decided to send Cesare to a more secure prison in Spain.^[11]

Around 1506, while working with the Italian Assassins, Sirus Favero tasked Lo Sparviero, the Assassin sent by Niccolò Machiavelli, to intercept a Crow messenger and recover an important document from him. The messenger soon appeared on the Ponte Sant'Angelo,^[12] and Lo Sparviero killed him to retrieve the letter. He then met with Sirus again at Castel Sant'Angelo to hand him the letter, though he noticed his suspicious behavior. Deciding to follow him, the Assassin discovered that Sirus was the leader of the Crows, known as "Il Corvo", and fell into an ambush from which he had to escape.^[12]^[13]

A few weeks later, Machiavelli learned from a document intercepted by Lo Sparviero that Sirus was summoning all of his Crows to organize an attack against the Assassins in Rome.^[14] Together with Lo Sparviero, he traveled to the Ponte Sant'Angelo, where Machiavelli watched as Lo Sparviero crossed underneath the heavily guarded bridge to reach the castle. After Lo Sparviero assassinated Sirus and his bodyguards,^[15] the surviving Crows surrendered.^[14]

Modern times[edit | edit source]

In 2016, the Castel Sant'Angelo was used as a simulated location by Abstergo Entertainment for their Identity Project. Like most of the simulated locations in the project, the castle had two aesthetic variations, and as such, could be utilized during sunset or daybreak.^[16]

Trivia[edit | edit source]

After climbing the flagpole and looking out at the cityscape, clouds appeared below the pole itself.
One of Clay Kaczmarek's rifts was located on the castle, on the main tower just across from the inner wall.
The entire castle was a restricted area throughout Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, except during certain memories, such as "The Ezio Auditore Affair."
The achievement "Fly Like An Eagle" can be earned by having Ezio jump from the castle's peak with a parachute. Upon ascending, the background music marking the area as a restricted zone will stop and cue up the track "City of Rome", which usually only plays when the Centro district is liberated, despite the building being in the Vaticano district. The track "Borgia, the Rulers of Rome" may also play instead, which is often used when the Borgia still hold most of the Centro District. Strangely, this track may play even if the district is free from Borgia control.