The Aelius Bridge was the monumental and scenographic access to the Mausoleum of Hadrian, with which it formed a single whole. It changed its name in 590 AD, when Pope St. Gregory the Great organized a penitential procession during the terrible plague of those years.

He brought to St. Peter's Basilica the image of Maria Salus populi Romani, kept in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which was said to have been painted by the evangelist Luke.

According to the legend, when the procession arrived on the Aelius Bridge, hosts of angels descended from the sky and surrounded the image of the Madonna singing the Regina Coeli.

Pope St. Gregory looked up to the sky and on top of the Castle the Archangel Michael appeared to him, cleaning his sword from the blood and putting it back in its scabbard: a sign that the pestilence was over.

From that moment on, the bridge became pons Sancti Angeli, and the same name was given to the Mausoleum, then transformed into a Castle. Both were incorporated into the medieval and Renaissance fortifications.

In 1892, during the construction of the new embankments of the Tiber river, it was decided to restore the Bridge and its partially obstructed arches, which had transformed it into a dangerous dam, causing continuous flooding and inundations.

By demolishing the medieval and Renaissance additions, the two original Roman ramps reappeared at both ends of the bridge, almost intact.
There was even the original paving with the sidewalks and part of the parapets, the substructure of the ramp towards the Mausoleum and the threshold of the tripartite portal of its external enclosure. Even the wooden poles of the Roman pilings were found.

The Ministry of Public Works temporarily halted the works to allow for photographic recording, which is the only documentation left. But shortly after they ordered to start the demolition, on the pretext that penalties would have to be paid for the delay of the works, and pretending there was not enough money for the pictures.

The Director of the Ministry simply wrote: "Although admitting that we must try to preserve the memory of ancient things, it does not seem that the interests of the Administration can be sacrificed for this purpose".
And so the original arches, the paving stones, the parapets and the ramps were mercilessly demolished by the Military Engineers, together with the Renaissance fortifications on the south side of the Castle.

These and other information on the Bridge and its story are taken from the forthcoming book of Marina De Franceschini dedicated to Castel Sant’Angelo: «The Mausoleum of Hadrian. Architecture and Light».