Castel Sant'Angelo
— the angel that sheathed its sword over the city.
Not only on a wall.
“A round drum of brick and travertine on the right bank of the Tiber, built as Hadrian's tomb and renamed for an angel. The story goes that during the plague of 590, Pope Gregory saw the Archangel Michael sheathe his sword above it, and the dying stopped. A bronze Michael keeps that spot today. Across the water, Bernini's angels line the old bridge, each carrying an instrument of the Passion. People cross at dusk, when the brick goes the colour of a banked coal and the river holds the light a little longer than the sky does.
Castel Sant'Angelo, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
Castel Sant'Angelo stands on the right bank of the Tiber in Rome, in the Lazio region, directly across the river from the historic centre and a short walk upstream of Vatican City. Emperor Hadrian had it built between 134 and 139 AD as a mausoleum for himself and his family, and his ashes were placed inside in 139, a year after his death, alongside those of his wife Sabina. The Ponte Sant'Angelo, the old Roman Pons Aelius, still carries foot traffic across the water to its base. From the upper terrace the dome of St. Peter's reads close enough to touch.
What began as a Roman tomb is now a stack of nearly nineteen centuries of building. Hadrian's cylindrical drum of brick and travertine became a fortress in the Middle Ages, then a papal stronghold, a prison, and a refuge. In 1277 Pope Nicholas III joined it to the Vatican by the Passetto di Borgo, an 800-metre walled corridor a pope could cross unseen. A bronze Archangel Michael stands on the roofline, cast by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt in 1753, marking the spot where, by legend, the angel sheathed his sword to end the plague of 590. Across the river, ten angels designed by Bernini line the bridge, each holding an instrument of the Passion.
Castel Sant'Angelo is open to the public as the Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant'Angelo, entered from the Lungotevere on the river side. A spiral ramp built for Hadrian's funeral processions climbs through the old drum to the papal apartments, the historic armoury, and the open terrace where the third act of Puccini's Tosca, first staged in Rome in 1900, comes to its end. The terrace holds one of the widest rooftop views in the city, north toward St. Peter's and south over the river bends. The Passetto di Borgo, the popes' escape corridor, opens seasonally. Late afternoon, as the light drops, is when the brick warms and the crowd on Ponte Sant'Angelo thins.