Castel S. Angelo and Mastro Titta: the death sentences carried out in the square

On a trip to Rome it is mandatory to visit Castel Sant’Angelo.

Castel Sant’Angelo, built in 123 d.C. to contain the remains of Emperor Adriano and his family, he has stood up to the changes and destructions that have swept, in almost two thousand years, all the other monuments of the Roman Era.

It was a Funerary Monument, a Fortified Outpost, then a Terrible Prison and therefore a Splendid Renaissance Residence.

There are many legends about the famous monument of Castel 
Sant'Angelo!
One of the most beautiful concerns the modification of the name from Hadrian's Mausoleum to the actual Castel S. Angelo

Rome was devastated by the plague and under a terrible flood of the 
Tiber. On the 29th of August, 529, the silhouette of an angel 
appeared on top of the Castle, the plague epidemic stopped and Rome 
flourished again!

Its walls, in the solemn Roman spaces, have known the art of Michelangelo in the sumptuous frescoed rooms, but also the horrors of the prisons!

Death sentences were carried out in the square inside and the executioner for the Papal State for more than half of the 800 was the famous Mastro Titta.

“Every time he crossed the bridge, the population was warned, so that everyone knew that an execution was scheduled! In his long career the Boia Mastro Titta executed 516 sentences all described in his “Annotations”.