A fine 19th century photograph of landmarks of Rome. This early photograph, looking south over the Tiber River toward Castel Sant’Angelo and then further on to the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica, captures a view of some of Rome’s most important landmarks. This vantage point had been popular with painters from the beginning of the 19th century. Painters Alexander Brullov (1826), Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1826-28) and Rudolf Weigmann (1834) all produced images of this scene, and photographers later adopted the popular view for tourist photographs like the one seen here.

The invention of photography radically expanded the viewer’s access to far away places. As 19th-century American photographer Marcus Aurelius Root described,“What, heretofore, the traveler alone could witness, … even the humblest may now behold, substantially, without crossing his own threshold.”

Saint Peter’s Basilica, arguably the most important Christian landmark in the world, is traditionally considered to be the final resting place of St. Peter. Castel Sant’Angelo, also known as Hadrian’s Tomb, was a mausoleum commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in 135 CE.