Location and Accessibility
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
Hadrianic Medallion with Pons Aelius
View of Hadrian's Mausoleum with bridge
The Hadrianic medallion shows the original structure of the bridge Pons Aelius that was completed in AD 134. It has three arches and eight plinths supporting columns that were topped by statues.3 The bridge has been modified throughout the years. The most notable change in the current view is the addition of two arches on the ends. The bridge provides access to the Mausoleum from Campus Martius, connects the center of the city to a new area that was only developed after the Mausoleum was built, and brings the Mausoleum into Rome's topography of funerary monuments.
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1Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008), 212
2Penelope J.E. Davies, Death and the Emperors: Roman Imperial Funerary Monuments from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 158-159
3Mary T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 178.