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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue439" data-source="post: 828621" data-attributes="member: 53455">A Summer in Rome (2012)Long exposure (21 seconds) on the bridge over River Tiber in front of the Castel Sant’ Angelo. This was designed as a mausoleum for Roman Emperor Hadrian. Construction began in 125 AD and was completed in record time by 139. The central part at the top is a chapel that was added during the Renaissance. It served at least twice in History as a place of refuge for Popes fearing for their lives and who fled from the Vatican using the secret passage known as the Passetto, made famous by Dan Brown’s novel of 2000 Angels and Demons. The passage connects Saint Peter’s basilica and the Castel Sant’ Angelo.The “Saint Angel” in question is Michael, whose bronze statue (the latest in a long series), made in 1752 by Flemish artist Peter Anton von Vershaffelt, crowns the chapel and can be seen at the very top. It commemorates the coming of the Archangel to Rome in 590 to end a black plague epidemic that had decimated the city since the previous year. That episode was in fact the latest upsurge of a pandemic that began in 541 and is known as Justinian’s Plague. The Michael episode brought it to an end and the black plague did not return to Europe until the mid–1300s.Nikon D3s, Nikkor 24-70mm, ƒ/2.8 G lens. Gitzo tripod, natural light.[ATTACH=full]414895[/ATTACH]</blockquote>