Address: Lungotevere Castello 1

While in the private architecture (Villa Adriana in Tivoli) Adrian greatly developed his own hellenistic inclinations, in the public one, he kept on a line inspired then by the classic patrimony, then more conservative in the roman sense, as in his mausoleum, for which he had been inspired by the one of Augustus.
He built his own (now become Castel Sant'Angelo) on the right bank of the Tiber, initially opposite to the one of Agrippa in the Campus Martius to which it was joined by means of the construction of Ponte Elio (Bridge Elio).



It consisted of a large die as basis of 84 m. on the side and of 10 m., in height, on which rested the circular tambour. The basement covered with marble, had pilaster at the angles and friezes, where were written the "titles" of the membres of the imperial family. In the section turned toward the river there was the entrance which faces a dromos preceded by an arch. The dromos led to a helicoidal flight of steps in brick work which ended in a high rectilinear corridor: this one led to the cell situated at the centre of the edifice, on which rose two others: one with a barrel vault and the other with a cupola. The tambour, of 64 m. in diameter and 20 m. in height, was of peperin and opus coementicium, with covering in travertine and pillars with grooves and it was surmounted by a soil tumulus with trees. All around there were decorative marble statues, while on top of the tumulus, over the third cell (the only one visible from the exterior) there was a bronze statue which represented the emperor guiding a quadriga, a wall with bronze grill adorned with peacocks constituted the end of this splendid sepulchre.