Rome welcomes an important appointment in the city’s cultural calendar: Castel Sant ’ Angelo hosts, from September 23, 2025 to February 15, 2026, the exhibition Castel Sant’Angelo 1911-1925. The Dawn of a Museum. The initiative, promoted by thePantheon Institute and the National Museums Directorate of the City of Rome, provisionally directed by Luca Mercuri, marks the centenary of the monument’s transformation into a National Museum, established by Royal Decree of May 4, 1925.
The exhibition is part of a long and complex history that has seen Castel Sant’Angelo go from imperial mausoleum to fortification, papal residence, prison and barracks. The creation of the museum represents the moment when the castle took on a public cultural function, dedicated to the enhancement of heritage and aimed at a national and international audience. The exhibition aims to recall the origins of the itinerary, dating back to the 1911 Exposition organized on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. On that occasion, Castel Sant’Angelo was transformed into an exhibition space for a retrospective exhibition on Italian art, which integrated archaeology, figurative and decorative arts, historical settings and thematic itineraries, configuring itself as a cultural and narrative experiment of considerable ambition.
The exhibition celebrates that experiment, evoking its atmosphere and suggestions in a contemporary key. The project, curated by Luca Mercuri with the support of the scientific committee composed of Matilde Amaturo, Luigi Gallo, Ilaria Miarelli Mariani and Mario Scalini, is conceived as a reflection on the civic role of cultural heritage and the construction of a shared memory.
“This exhibition,” Luca Mercuri comments, “represents a valuable opportunity to rediscover a founding moment in the history of the National Museum of Castel Sant’Angelo and, at the same time, to reflect on the civil role of cultural heritage in the construction of a shared memory. Conceived as a tribute to the 1911 Exhibition, the initiative restores, in a critical and contemporary key, the experimental spirit of that extraordinary exhibition enterprise, capable of combining scientific rigor and narrative impact, memory and innovation. The itinerary brings into dialogue works from important Italian museums with extraordinary materials kept in the Castle’s deposits, some of them restored for the occasion and not exhibited to the public for decades. It is, therefore, not just an exhibition, but a true cultural operation that, thanks also to loans of excellence, restores centrality to the public function of the museum: to preserve and at the same time share heritage, to recover the past in order to look to the future. A project that speaks to the city and to all audiences, and that renews the deep connection between Castel Sant’Angelo, its history and its cultural vocation.”
The display takes in some of the most representative rooms of the castle, from the Rooms of Clement VIII to the Hall of Justice, from the apartment of Clement VII to the Hall of Apollo. The first section houses watercolors by Ettore Roesler Franz from the Museum of Rome, depicting views of the city that was changing under the urban transformations of its new role as capital city. Among the most outstanding works is Umberto Prencipe ’s painting of a view of Rome in the 15th century, conceived for the 1911 exhibition: the monumental size and the glow of dawn illuminating the scene inspired the title of today’s exhibition.
From Gorga ’s holdings come musical instruments and archaeological artifacts, including a Late Antique stele depicting a praetorian and restored Romanesque slabs from the Museum of Civilizations, related to the section devoted to marble working in 1911. Among the exhibits, Giovanni Prini’s colored plaster sculpture depicting the meeting between Pontiff Eugene IV and the castellan Antonio da Rido links back to the section on historical costumes and clothing in the original exhibition. Daniele da Volterra’sElijah in the Desert, from the Uffizi, recalls the homage to the Michelangelo section of the 1911 Exhibition.
Works from the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica at Palazzo Barberini, such as Vanvitelli’s View of the Tiber at Castel Sant’Angelo, connect the monument to its urban context, while from the Accademia di San Luca comes a terracotta sculpture by Giambologna depicting a river allegory. The exhibition also devotes space to Bartolomeo Pinelli, an interpreter of 19th-century Rome and popular trades, linking his works to the enhancement of the city’s popular tradition already envisioned in 1911. A relevant section is reserved for historical weapons and armor, in continuity with the 1911 Men in Arms section. Alongside loans such as two celates from the Bargello in Florence, restored works from the storage rooms of Castel Sant’Angelo are displayed, including a rare Medici armor from the second half of the 16th century. Such objects dialogue with Battista Dossi’s portrait of Alfonso I d’Este, from the Galleria Estense in Modena, known for his interest in artillery.
The itinerary includes a section devoted to Giovan Battista Piranesi, with the Carceri d’invenzione (Prisons of Invention ) evoking the castle’s historic prisons. The prints, pulled by the Regia Calcografia for the 1911 exhibition, are flanked by objects that recall the monument’s prison function. The archaeological section integrates Piranesi’s engravings dedicated to ancient monuments, including Castel Sant’Angelo, with original artifacts such as spikes with traces of charred wood, remnants of foundation piles, and marble bipedals stamped from the mausoleum.
The conclusion of the exhibition takes place in the Hall of Apollo, where a model of the castle made in 1911 is on display, observing the marble busts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, linked to the foundation of the Mausoleum. A side compartment houses Bracci’s gilded wooden angel, chosen as the symbol of the display. Historic images in vitrines document the 1911 Exposition, while large-format photographic reproductions create an immersive experience, bringing past and present works into dialogue. Original documents include the 1911 exhibition poster and guide, accompanied by an anastatic copy that can be consulted by the public, and the current exhibition guide available in the Castle bookshop.
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| Castel Sant'Angelo celebrates 100 years of its museum with "Dawn of a Museum" exhibition |
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