Papal dungeons reopen for business
Castel Sant'Angelo prisoners included Cellini, Cagliostro
(ANSA) - Rome, July 11 - The dungeons in which popes once threw enemies
of their earthly power will reopen this summer for spooky night tours.
The tiny grated cells under former papal fortress Castel Sant'Angelo are
clinking open again after a ten-year restoration.
Visitors will be shown into the dank, oil-lit spaces where thousands of
political and common criminals were shut away in the days that the Vatican held
temporal sway over Rome and much of central Italy.
Guides will recount the tales of famous inmates such as turbulent
gold-working genius Benvenuti Cellini who spent months there in 1538 on charges
of embezzling the papal tiara and tried a daring escape amid fears of the noose.
Heroes of the Risorgimento, the movement that eventually reunited Italy
and ended the papal state, were also enclosed in the jail above Emperor
Hadrian's ancient tomb - as recounted in Giacomo Puccini's famous opera Tosca.
Among the other notorious guests was Cagliostro, a Freemason and alleged
occultist sent to the dungeons by the Inquisition.
Inmates who met their death on the scaffold included a Roman family, the
Cencis, hanged in 1599 after a shocking affair of incest, murder and revenge.
Their story - and in particular the apparent innocence of daughter
Beatrice - inspired writers like Shelley, Dumas and Stendhal.
Guided tours of the prison, lasting from 21:30 to 23:10, will start on
July 13 and end a month later.
http://www.ansa.it/site/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2007-07-11_111105786.html
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