All Rooms of Castel Sant'Angelo
Complete reference to every named space inside the castle, organised by level using the official Direzione Musei Nazionali di Roma colour code.
Quick answer: Castel Sant'Angelo contains 31 named spaces distributed across six levels: Hadrian's Roman core at ground level (Livello 0), the medieval halls of Livello 1, the Renaissance papal apartments of Livello 2 with the famous Sala Paolina, the library and treasury of Livello 3, the topmost rooms and the Terrazza dell'Angelo of Livello 4, and the fortifications of the Bastion level. Each level uses its own colour in the official brochure.
The castle is not a museum with a few rooms attached — it is a vertical sequence of thirty-one rooms, courtyards, ramps, chapels, prisons and terraces stacked across nineteen centuries of building.
What follows is the complete list, room by room, in the order of the official brochure of the Direzione Musei Nazionali di Roma. Each space carries its official numerical code (used on the in-castle signage) and its colour according to the level it belongs to. Where we have a dedicated article, we link to it; the others are described in enough detail to identify on your visit.
For the layout itself — how the rooms connect, what order to walk them in — see the castle floor plan. For a curated route through the must-see rooms, see the highlights guide.
31
Named rooms
6
Levels
19
Centuries
2–3 hrs
Full visit
Livello 0
Ground level — Hadrian's Roman core
6 spaces
Cappella dei Condannati
Chapel of the Condemned
Originally a powder storeroom, converted into a prayer room in the 18th century where prisoners on the eve of their execution heard Mass. Today used for conferences and audiovisual presentations.
Olearie
Oil and grain stores
Storerooms for olive oil and grain that supplied the castle during sieges. Part of the working infrastructure of a fortress that needed to feed its garrison for months at a time.
Dromos
Roman entrance corridor
The original Roman entrance to Hadrian's mausoleum, leading to the burial chamber. Walls of squared travertine still preserve the layout of the 2nd-century structure.
Rampa elicoidale
Helical ramp
The original 2nd-century spiral ramp that climbs through the cylindrical core of the building. Hadrian's funeral cortège carried the imperial ashes up this ramp; visitors today follow the same path.
Rampa diametrale
Diametral ramp
A second straight ramp that cuts across the cylinder, opened in later renovations to give direct access to the Cortile dell'Angelo above.
Sala delle Urne
Hall of the Urns
The burial chamber at the heart of the mausoleum, where the urns containing the ashes of Hadrian, his wife Sabina, his son Aelius and successive emperors up to Caracalla (217 AD) were placed. The urns were scattered during Alaric's sack of Rome in 410.
Livello 1
Medieval halls and the Angel's Courtyard
7 spaces
Cortile dell'Angelo
Angel's Courtyard
The open inner courtyard at the heart of the upper levels. Houses the original 1544 marble statue of the Archangel Michael by Raffaello da Montelupo, replaced on the terrace by the bronze Verschaffelt in 1752.
Armeria inferiore
Lower armoury
The lower armoury, today housing the historical iconography exhibition: prints, drawings and paintings tracing the changing image of the castle from the Renaissance to the 19th century.
Sale Clemente VIII
Halls of Clement VIII
A suite of rooms decorated under Pope Clement VIII (pontificate 1592–1605). Includes original monumental wooden doors that have survived from the period.
Sala della Giustizia
Hall of Justice
Carved into the original Roman concrete core, with thick walls of squared masonry. Tradition holds that trials were conducted here. Decorated with a 16th-century fresco of the Archangel Michael by Domenico Rietti (Zaga).
Sala di Apollo
Hall of Apollo
Decorated under Paul III with grotesque-style frescoes featuring scenes of Apollo and the Muses. The painted ceiling is one of the most intact Renaissance ceilings in the castle.
Sale Clemente VII
Halls of Clement VII
Rooms associated with Pope Clement VII, who took refuge in the castle during the Sack of Rome in 1527. Includes the small bathroom (Stufetta) decorated by Giovanni da Udine.
Cappella di Leone X
Chapel of Leo X
Small private chapel built for Pope Leo X (pontificate 1513–1521) on the route to the upper papal apartments. Decorated with stuccoes and frescoes in the early Mannerist style.
Livello 2
The Renaissance papal apartments
7 spaces
Armeria superiore
Upper armoury
Today used for temporary exhibitions. Originally part of the castle's working military infrastructure; the surviving displays include weapons, armour and standards from the papal arsenal.
Cortile di Alessandro VI
Courtyard of Alexander VI
Open courtyard built for Alexander VI Borgia, with a well bearing the Borgia coat of arms. From here you reach the historical prisons, the Olearie, and the bookshop.
Loggia di Giulio II
Loggia of Julius II
The marble loggia that overlooks the Tiber and Ponte Sant'Angelo. Built under Pope Julius II by Giuliano da Sangallo and Bramante, with four columns and the inscription IVL II PONT MAX ANNO II under the oak emblem of the della Rovere family.
Sala Paolina
Hall of Paul III
The most lavish room in the castle. Frescoed 1545–1547 by Perin del Vaga and his team for Pope Paul III, with scenes from the lives of Alexander the Great and Saint Paul, and the famous trompe-l'œil painted door by Pellegrino Tibaldi.
Read full article →Sala di Perseo
Hall of Perseus
The pope's study, decorated with scenes from the myth of Perseus drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Coffered ceiling with grotesques, a relief of Saint Michael at the centre, and Farnese unicorns alternating with the mythological panels.
Sala Amore e Psiche
Hall of Cupid and Psyche
The pope's bedroom, with frescoes following the Cupid and Psyche story from Apuleius. Connected to the Sala Paolina and the Sala di Perseo to form the inner core of the Farnese apartment.
Corridoio Pompeiano
Pompeian Corridor
A narrow passage decorated in the antiquarian taste of the late Renaissance, with motifs inspired by ancient Roman wall painting. Connects the Sala Paolina to the library on the level above.
Livello 3
Library, treasury and prison cells
5 spaces
Sala della Biblioteca
Library Hall
A grand Renaissance hall with a coffered gilded ceiling and a Latin inscription frieze. Originally housed the papal library; later connected to the treasury and the secret archive.
Cagliostra
The Cagliostra
Built in 1543 as a loggia, walled up in the 18th century to become a high-security prison cell. Named after the alchemist Count Cagliostro (Giuseppe Balsamo), held here by the Inquisition from December 1789 to April 1791.
Sala dell'Adrianeo
Hall of Hadrian
Small room next to the library, decorated with motifs evoking the imperial age and Hadrian himself, builder of the original mausoleum. Coffered ceiling with painted panels.
Sala dei Festoni
Hall of the Festoons
Named for its decoration of painted festoons of fruit and flowers. One of the rooms decorated by Duilio Cambellotti in the early 20th-century restoration of the upper apartments.
Sala del Tesoro
Treasury Hall
From the mid-15th century, the official strongroom of the Papal States. In 1586, Pope Sixtus V installed iron chests holding the Sanction Treasury — a reserve fund for the defence of the state — secured by six locks held by the Treasurer and the Cardinal Dean.
Livello 4
The top of the castle
3 spaces
Sala della Rotonda
Round Hall
A circular room above the Treasury, reached by a narrow Roman staircase. Tradition holds it as the site of the first medieval chapel dedicated to the Archangel Michael. Today displays the original metal armature of the Verschaffelt statue, replaced during the 1987 restoration.
Sala delle Colonne
Hall of Columns
Built in the 18th century alongside two smaller adjacent rooms, decorated by Duilio Cambellotti in the early 20th century. One of the last interior spaces before reaching the open terrace.
Terrazza dell'Angelo
Terrace of the Angel
The roof of the castle. Crowned by Verschaffelt's 1752 bronze statue of the Archangel Michael, with the Misericordia bell of 1758 alongside. 360-degree views from St Peter's to the Quirinale; the setting of Tosca's leap in Puccini's 1900 opera.
Read full article →Livello Bastioni
Bastions and the wall walk
3 spaces
Rampa diametrale
Diametral ramp (bastion access)
Lower-level access ramp leading to the bastion walk, the four-pointed star fortification that Alexander VI Borgia commissioned at the end of the 15th century to bring the castle's defences up to the standard of contemporary artillery.
Corpi di guardia e Bastioni degli Evangelisti
Guard rooms and Bastions of the Evangelists
The four corner bastions, each named for one of the four Evangelists: San Marco, San Luca, San Matteo, San Giovanni. Built between the 1490s and the 1560s, they housed garrison troops and artillery covering the approaches to the Vatican.
Passetto di Borgo
The Passetto di Borgo
The 800-metre fortified corridor running along the top of the city walls from Castel Sant'Angelo to the Vatican Palaces. Built by Nicholas III in 1277. Famously used by Pope Clement VII to escape the Sack of Rome in May 1527. Currently not accessible to general visitors.
About this list
The numbering, naming and division by level follow the official brochure of the Direzione Musei Nazionali di Roma (dmnrm), which currently administers Castel Sant'Angelo. The codes (0.1, 1.5, B1, etc.) are the same ones used on the in-castle signage and on the printed plan handed out at the ticket office.
The colours of each level — orange for Livello 0, blue for Livello 1, purple for Livello 2, green for Livello 3, red for Livello 4, yellow for the Bastion level — are also the official ones. They make the otherwise complex vertical organisation of the castle navigable on a single sheet of paper.
Six rooms are marked as highlights in the official brochure: the Helical Ramp (0.4), the Cortile dell'Angelo (1.1), the Sala di Apollo (1.5), the Sala Paolina (2.4), the Sala della Biblioteca (3.1) and the Terrazza dell'Angelo (4.3). They form the official suggested route through the must-see spaces.