Passetto di Borgo

This elevated fortified corridor runs about eight hundred metres along the top of a wall linking the Vatican with the Castel Sant'Angelo, built so that popes could flee to the safety of the fortress in times of danger. Constructed in the late thirteenth century and strengthened later, it famously sheltered Pope Clement VII during the sack of Rome in 1527. Hidden atop the ancient wall of the Leonine City, the narrow walkway is occasionally opened for guided visits above the Borgo district.