The new book on history, archeology and archaeoastronomy by Marina De Franceschini and Giuseppe Veneziano dedicated to the Mausoleum of Hadrian, the current Castel Sant'Angelo, which traces its thousand-year history, will soon be available.

It was built in 130 AD, on the banks of the Tiber river, together with the Aelius bridge, as a new dynastic Mausoleum inspired by that of Augustus.
On the top it had a Temple with the Quadriga of the Sun led by Emperor Hadrian as Sol Invictus; today there is the statue of the Archangel Michael.

In late antiquity it became an impregnable fortress and resisted the sieges of the Saracens and barbarians. To defend themselves, the Romans tore into pieces the sculptures that decorated it and threw them on the besiegers.
During the Sack of Rome by the Landsknechts in 1527 the Pope found refuge there.

There are spectacular illuminations in the days of the summer Solstice that make us discover the symbolic meaning of this building, linked to the Sun god and imperial power.