What to see inside Castel Sant'Angelo

The route in short

CoopCulture, which sells the official tickets, sums up the route like this:

• the ambulatory of Boniface IX on the ground floor and the helical ramp;
• the Hall of the Urns (Sala delle Urne);
• the Cortile dell'Angelo;
• the Sala della Giustizia and the Sala di Apollo;
• the rooms of Clement VII and the Loggia of Paul III;
• the Library, the Treasury Room and the Sala Paolina;
• the Loggia of Julius II and the terrace.

Since 3 December 2024 the ground-floor ring may be diverted for accessibility works; visitors can then start straight from the dromos and go up the ramp to the Cortile dell'Angelo.

Hadrian's Mausoleum

The entrance dromos, the spiral ramp, the Hall of the Urns and the archaeological finds are all parts of the Roman mausoleum.

History of the building: history.

Cortile dell'Angelo

In this courtyard stands the marble angel that once crowned the castle. According to Wikipedia, Raffaello da Montelupo made it in 1536; in 1753 it was replaced by the bronze angel you see on top today.

The papal apartments

Higher up, the Renaissance rooms were decorated by artists in Raphael's circle such as Pellegrino Tibaldi and Luzio Luzi: the Sala Paolina, the Library, the Sale Farnesiane, the Cagliostra and the rooms of Clement VII. The collection includes the Zavattari polyptych and Lorenzo Lotto's Saint Jerome in Penitence.

On 20 June 2026 the Sale Farnesiane, part of the apartment built for Pope Paul III in the 1540s, reopened, with the Room of Cupid and Psyche and the Room of Perseus next to the Sala Paolina set out to recall their original use in the papal apartment.

The armoury

Since 20 June 2026 the exhibition Panopliæ. Armi, ingegno e potere shows the museum's historic arms collection in 6 rooms of the former Armoury.

The terrace and the angel

At the top stands the bronze Archangel Michael: the castle takes its name from the legend that in 590 Pope Gregory the Great saw the archangel here sheathing his sword, a sign that the plague was over. According to Wikipedia the bronze is by the Flemish sculptor Peter Anton von Verschaffelt (1753).

Exhibitions now

• Luchino Visconti e la messa in scena della storia: 17 October 2026 – 29 November 2026.
• Fuochi sul Tevere (Kanutas Ruseckas), in the Castellan's Apartment, until 22 November 2026.

Exhibitions are included in the castle ticket.

Planning the visit

• The official pages give no visit length. The free staff tours in Italian last about an hour and a half.
• Some spaces are hard to reach for people with reduced mobility; the museum offers virtual tours of the upper rooms (getting there and rules).
• Bookshop in the Courtyard of Alexander VI, Tuesday to Sunday 9am–7pm; free maps at the ticket office.