Popular Culture
The Castel Sant'Angelo was featured in Dan Brown's 2000 novel Angels & Demons. The location was the secret lair for the Hassassin and contained the last existing church of the Illuminati. The Passetto di Borgo was described as a secret passageway between the Vatican and the Castel. It subsequently appeared in the 2009 film based on the novel Angels & Demons. The Castel has also appeared in the film Roman Holiday.
The Castel is one of the settings of Endymion and The Rise of Endymion, books in the Hyperion Cantos by author Dan Simmons. However, it is set on the fictional planet Pacem. It serves as a prison and site of the torture of several protagonists in the novels.
The Castel is featured prominently in Puccini's opera Tosca. The Castel serves as the prison and location of execution of Mario Cavaradossi. Floria Tosca also throws herself from the rooftop after discovering Cavaradossi's death to escape capture by Scarpia's henchmen.
In 1980, two American rock bands performed concerts outside the Castel. Kiss performed in August and The Ramones performed in September.
The Castel has appeared twice in the Assassin's Creed game series. It first appeared in Assassin's Creed II, and was featured more prominently in the following Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. It is depicted as the official residence of Pope Alexander VI and his children Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia.
The design of the McKinley National Memorial in Canton, Ohio, the final resting place of US President William McKinley and his family, was based on the Castel according to its architect, Harold Van Buren Magonigle.
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