Discover the thousand-year history of one of the greatest monuments of ancient Rome, built as an imperial Mausoleum and then transformed into an impregnable Fortress.
Like all great Roman monuments, Hadrian's Mausoleum was designed and built to last forever, and in fact it has defied the millennia by overcoming natural and human disasters such as floods, earthquakes, wars and looting.
Thanks to the foundations over seven meters deep and the skillful shaping of the river bed, it has resisted the recurring floods of the Tiber.
It withstood ferocious sieges such as those of the Visigoths, Vandals and Goths in 410, 455 and 537 AD., and also the sack of the Landsknechts in 1527.
It was stripped of its its columns and capitals, made with precious marbles coming from all over the ancient world. The large blocks of travertine and peperino that covered it were used to pave the streets and squares of Rome.
The enormous marble sculptures were torn to pieces to throw them at the besiegers and very little remained of its splendid decoration.
Discover this and much more in Marina De Franceschini's new book, which gives a new and original reconstruction of the ancient Mausoleum: «Castel Sant'Angelo. Mausoleo di Adriano, Architettura e Luce», forthcoming in english Language.
©MarinaDeFrancschini2024