Location and Accessibility

Map of ancient Rome: location of Hadrian Mausoleum in red

Map of ancient Rome. Location of Hadrian's Mausoleum in red. 2006

Hadrian’s Mausoleum is located outside the pomerium, the religious border of Rome.1 It sits on the west bank of the Tiber River in the the Ager Vaticanus (“Vatican Place”), across from Campus Martius. Although relatively isolated from the center of Rome, the Mausoleum is strategically located close to the burial site of earlier emperors and their relatives, the Mausoleum of Augustus, which was surpassed in size by Hadrian's project. With its monumental scale, it can be easily seen from across the river. The Mausoleum can be accessed from Campus Martius through the bridge Pons Aelius (now Ponte Sant’Angelo), which was completed a few years before the completion of the tomb. The Mausoleum's location across river evokes the journey of the soul from mortal to immortal world across the Styx in Greek mythology.2