“Castel Sant’Angelo is one of the monuments dating back to ancient Rome, also famous for the presence of the Passetto, which links it to the Vatican City. The Passetto will also play a key role in “Angels and Demons”. Langdon, in fact, will use it as a fundamental shortcut to reach the Pope’s rooms and then in the heart of the Vatican
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“Alberico II of Rome (905-954 AD) reacting (this is the tradition) to an offense made to him by Ugo of Provence, king of Italy, third mother’s husband (932), with the help of the Roman aristocracy hostile to Ugo , in which he saw the threat of foreign dominance, gave the assault on Castel Sant’Angelo, drove his stepfather, imprisoned his mother and brother, Pope John XI, and became absolute lord of Rome with the title of princeps et senator Romanorum.
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“The Mystery of Ponte Sant’Angelo
Ponte Sant’Angelo was renovated in 1669 and the Angels of the Passion created by Bernini were added. Initially it was used to expose the heads of those condemned to death.
the legend says that the bridge is also inhabited by a ghost that appears on the night between 10 and 11 September, that of a noble lady, Beatrice Cenci, who was mistreated at the age of 16 by her father Francesco Cenci.
The mother Lucrezia watched inert to the facts, so Beatrice wrote to the Pope but never received a reply. At that point she organized a revenge with her brothers Giacomo and Bernardo to have their father brutally killed.
Arriving in front of the judges, they tried to mask and justify the assassination with a strong haemorrhage, but the alibi fell and all the members of the family were gradually executed.
The people defended Beatrice against the judges and for this she was given a 25-day extension, which expired on 11 September 1557, after this date she was beheaded in front of Castel Sant’Angelo.”

“The Mystery of Castel Sant’Angelo.
A famous legend dates back to the 7th century Rome, when Gregory the Great was elected Pope. At that time the Eternal City was largely submerged due to a ruinous flood of the Tiber river and, in addition, the plague had taken over and decimated the population.
Pope Gregory decided to organize a three-day procession to ask for divine mercy.
Arriving in front of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, on August 29th of 590, the silhouette of an angel who placed a flaming sword in its sheath appeared before all those present. From that moment the plague epidemic stopped and so the Mausoleum was called Castel Sant’Angelo.”