You're on the bridge leading away from the castle — Ponte Sant'Angelo, lined on both sides by ten marble angels, each one carrying an instrument of Christ's suffering. A crown of thorns, a cross, a whip, the nails. It's one of the most beautiful walks in Rome, and Bernini designed the whole set.
Bernini himself only carved two of the ten. The rest were done by his students to his designs. And the two he did with his own hands? The Pope took one look at them, decided they were far too precious to leave out in the weather and the pigeons, and had them moved indoors into a church for safekeeping. What you see in those two spots are copies. So Bernini's finest angels on his own bridge are the two you're not actually looking at. Romans, being Romans, nicknamed the whole flock the Breezy Maniacs, for their dramatic swirling robes and wild expressions.
The bridge under your feet is as old as the tomb it leads to. Hadrian built it, around nineteen centuries ago, for one purpose — to carry mo
urners across the river to his mausoleum. Bridge and castle were always a single project. At the near end stand two older statues, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, set there to greet pilgrims crossing toward the holy city. And each of Bernini's ten angels carries not only an instrument of the crucifixion but a line of Latin scripture to match it. The whole crossing was designed as a slow, staged approa
