Originally called Ponte Aelius (after the Emperor Hadrian's second name), the St.Angel Bridge was constructed in 136 AD to connect the city of Rome to Hadrian's Mausoleum, today's Castel Sant'Angelo.

It is the most beautiful and the most perfect of Rome's bridges, never having been damaged by the river in flood.
Up to the Middle Ages, it was the bridge most used by pilgrims going to St.Peter's Basilica.
Dante crossed this bridge on his visit to Rome in the Jubilee year of 1300.
In the Holy Year of 1450, one of the parapets of the bridge collapsed owing to the huge pressure of the crowd- 150 people drowned. This tragedy was caused, in part, by the shops on the bridge that restricted the flow of people.
Pope Sixtus IV consequently had the shops removed and a new bridge built just downriver.
In the 17^th century, Bernini designed the angels for which the bridge's beauty is admired today.
Standing on the bridge, you are at the cross roads of history: behind you is medieval Rome with its piazzas and where the last execution took place at the end of the 19^th century; in front of you is the Emperor Hadrian's tomb and the monumental mass of Castel Sant'Angelo; to the left, you see St. Peter's Dome; to the right is the Ponte Umberto I and the Palace of Justice-symbols of Rome, the modern capital.