Saint Peter and Borgo

The Ponte Sant Angelo crosses the Tiber River with five stone arches, decorated by ten marble angels carved by the workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Emperor Hadrian commissioned the bridge in the second century to reach his own mausoleum…

The cylindrical stone fortress of Castel Sant'Angelo rises above the Tiber, crowned by a bronze statue of an angel sheathing a sword. Emperor Hadrian built this massive structure as a mausoleum for himself and his family in the second…

The Passetto di Borgo is an elevated, fortified stone corridor running atop the boundary wall between the Vatican and the Castel Sant Angelo. Its long, crenelated exterior shields the hidden walkway used by popes fleeing danger. In…

The Palazzo Giraud Torlonia sits in the Borgo district with a facade of rhythmic, rusticated brickwork that stands apart from the surrounding stone structures. Designed by Andrea Bregno in the late fifteenth century, the palace served as a…

The Palace of Penitenzieri stands out for its facade of weathered, brownish-grey stone and the long, elegant loggia running across the top floor. Cardinal Domenico della Rovere commissioned this building in the late fifteenth century as…

Borgo Pio is a narrow, pedestrian street paved in uneven cobblestones that runs parallel to the Vatican walls. It exists because of the sixteen century expansion of the Leonine City, transforming a path used by pilgrims into a dense…

Piazza Papa Pio XII acts as the massive, open-air transition between the congested streets of the Borgo neighborhood and the grand expanse of Saint Peter’s Square. It is defined by the sweeping, colonnaded approach that frames the…

Four massive colonnades curve around Saint Peter's Square like two giant arms reaching out to embrace the crowd. Gian Lorenzo Bernini designed these rows of stone columns in the mid seventeenth century to create a sense of theater for…