Passetto di Borgo - Vatican City State / Roma, Italy
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denben
N 41° 54.197 E 012° 27.465
33T E 289130 N 4642163
The Passetto di Borgo, or simply Passetto, is an elevated passage that links the Vatican City with the Castel Sant'Angelo. It is an approximately 800 metres (2,600 ft) long corridor, located in the rione of Borgo.
Waymark Code: WM10MF9
Location: Lazio, Italy
Date Posted: 05/27/2019
Views: 5
The Passetto was erected in 1277 by Pope Nicholas III, but parts of the wall were built by Totila during the Gothic War. On two occasions it served as an escape route for Popes in danger.
Pope Alexander VI crossed it in 1494, when Charles VIII invaded the city and the pope's life was in peril.
Clement VII escaped to safety through this passage during the Sack of Rome in 1527, when troops of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, massacred almost the entire Swiss Guard on the steps of St Peter's Basilica.
In popular culture, the Passetto played a key role in the Dan Brown novel Angels & Demons, through which the antagonist (an illuminatus) transported four abducted cardinals to the Castel Sant'Angelo. The protagonists Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra later used the Passetto as a shortcut to Vatican City.
The Passetto also appears in the videogame Assassin's Creed II, whose protagonist Ezio Auditore Da Firenze fights his way along it on the way from the Castle to the Sistine Chapel.
The coordinates are from the Fontana delle Tiare between the Colonnade of Piazza San Pietro and the Passetto di Borgo.
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