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ThePassetto di Borgo, also calledEr Coridore di Borgo or thePassetto, is an elevated passage that linksVatican City with theCastel Sant'Angelo inRome. The passage is an approximately 800-metre-long (2,600 ft) corridor, built within an oldcity wall of Rome. Its most significant purpose was to provide thePope with a protected escape route from the Vatican, and it was used at least twice for this reason. It is located in therione ofBorgo.[1]
The Passetto started its life as part of a defensive wall built byTotila around 547, during theGothic War. It was repeatedly modified over the next millennium to meet changing goals.Pope Leo IV rebuilt the city wall around 852, adding a walkway. The exact date when the passage was added is unclear, but it was likely either in 1277 underPope Nicholas III, or in the fourteenth century underPope Boniface IX. Further defensive features were added under subsequent popes.[1] In its current form, it has two levels: the top level is a standard patrol walkway, and underneath it is the hidden enclosed escape passage.[2]
On at least two occasions it served as an escape route forPopes in danger.Pope Alexander VI crossed it in 1494, whenCharles VIII invaded the city and the pope's life was in peril.Clement VII escaped to safety through this passage during theSack of Rome in 1527, when troops of theHoly Roman Emperor,Charles V, massacred almost the entireSwiss Guard on the steps ofSt Peter's Basilica.
41°54′12″N12°27′42″E / 41.90333°N 12.46167°E /41.90333; 12.46167
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