Ponte Sant'Angelo

Ponte Sant'Angelo Review

One of the most beautiful of central Rome's 20 or so bridges is lined with angels designed by Bernini, baroque Rome's most prolific architect and sculptor. Bernini himself carved only two of the angels (those with the scroll and the crown of thorns), both of which were moved to the church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte shortly afterward due to the wishes of the Bernini family. Though copies, the angels on the bridge today convey forcefully the grace and characteristic sense of movement—a key element of baroque sculpture—of Bernini's best work. Originally built in 133-134, the Ponte Elio, as it was originally called, was a bridge over the Tiber to the Hadrian's Mausoleum. The bridge changed its name in memory of Pope Gregory's vision of an angel sheathing its sword to signal the ending of the Plague of 590. In Medieval times, continuing its sacral function, the bridge became an important element in funneling pilgrims toward St. Peter's and, as such, in 1667 Pope Clement IX commissioned Bernini to design 10 angels bearing the symbols of the Passion, turning the bridge into a sort of Via Crucis.