Ponte Sant'Angelo: Bernini's Windswept Angels
Why is it significant?
Step onto the bridge and walk slowly between the angels. Ten of them line the parapets in white marble, their robes whipped by a wind that isn't blowing, each holding up an object from the Passion of Christ: the whip, the crown of thorns, the nails, the sponge, the cross.
Key Facts
| Place | Ponte Sant'Angelo: Bernini's Windswept Angels |
|---|---|
| Address | Ponte Sant'Angelo, 00186 Roma RM, Italy |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.90190, 12.46650 |
| Part of Walk | Pilgrims, Popes and Swiss Guards: Rome's Vatican and the Medieval Borgo |
| Generated | Generated |
Step onto the bridge and walk slowly between the angels. Ten of them line the parapets in white marble, their robes whipped by a wind that isn't blowing, each holding up an object from the Passion of Christ: the whip, the crown of thorns, the nails, the sponge, the cross. Ahead of you, the great round castle fills the sky.
The bridge itself is ancient. The emperor Hadrian built it in 134 AD as the grand approach to his own mausoleum, the castle in front of you, and its central arches are still Roman. For the next fifteen centuries, nearly every pilgrim heading for St Peter's crossed the Tiber right here. It was the main road to the Vatican, and the bottleneck of all Christendom.
Which led to tragedy. During the Jubilee of 1450, a vast crowd on the bridge panicked, and people were crushed or thrown into the river; well over a hundred died. The square at the city end of the bridge was also a place of public executions. In 1599 the young noblewoman Beatrice Cenci, condemned for the murder of her violent father, was beheaded there, and Romans have half-believed ever since that her ghost returns to the bridge on the night before the anniversary, carrying her head.
The angels came in 1669, when Pope Clement the Ninth asked Gian Lorenzo Bernini, then about seventy, to turn the bridge into a Way of the Cross. Bernini designed all ten, and his workshop carved them. He sculpted two with his own hands, the angel with the crown of thorns and the angel with the inscription. The story goes that they were judged too beautiful to leave out in the rain, and today they stand inside the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte. What you see here are copies by his pupils.
At the city end, Saint Peter with his keys and Saint Paul with his sword have stood guard since the 1530s, like two bouncers at the door of the Vatican. Let them wave you across, and walk to the foot of the castle's massive walls.