Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of Angels)

Rom · Italy · Bridge

At first light the executioner Mastro Titta crosses the bridge in his scarlet cloak and offers passers-by a pinch of snuff — as he always did.

Giovanni Battista Bugatti, known to Romans as Mastro Titta, served as the Papal States' executioner for 68 years and put well over five hundred people to death, many of them at the foot of this bridge. Tradition holds that he always offered the condemned a pinch of snuff before the axe fell, and it is that gesture the legend has fastened on. Before sunrise he is said to appear on the bridge in the blood-red cloak he wore when walking over the Tiber from his lodgings in Trastevere. Those who meet him are offered the snuff, and the few who accepted say the hand holding out the box casts no shadow. Others hear only heavy steps between Bernini's angels before the figure dissolves toward the water.

FAQ

Where is Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of Angels) located?

Ponte Sant'Angelo (Bridge of Angels) is in Rom, Italy.

Image: Blackcat / CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons