A small independent exhibition space at number 2 of a street whose name is a piece of Roman military engineering: the ditches dug round Castel Sant’Angelo at the end of the fifteenth century.
At a glance
Triphè is a contemporary art gallery in the rione Borgo, a few dozen metres from Castel Sant’Angelo and about ten minutes on foot from St Peter’s Square. It shows painting, photography and mixed-media work by living artists, with free entry. It is the kind of address that visitors walk past on the way to the castle without noticing: the interest, for anyone who reads streets, begins with the name of the street itself.
Key facts
- What it is: an independent contemporary art gallery
- Where: Via delle Fosse di Castello 2, 00193 Rome, rione Borgo (R. XIV)
- Admission: free
- Website: triphe.it
- Setting: the street runs from Piazza Adriana to Largo di Porta Castello, along the line of the moat of Castel Sant’Angelo
The street and its ditches
Via delle Fosse di Castello is named for the fosse — the ditches, the moat — cut round the walls of Castel Sant’Angelo under Alexander VI, the Borgia pope, as part of the works that turned Hadrian’s mausoleum into the fortress of the papacy. The street follows their line. What is now an ordinary city block, with cars parked along one side, is the outer edge of a defensive system built when a pope expected to be besieged in his own city, as Clement VII in fact was in 1527.
The moat itself is once again visible. It was cleared and restored with about €1.3 million as part of the Piazza Pia works completed for the 2025 Jubilee, and three new pedestrian passages now connect it to Piazza Pia and to the Parco Adriano bastions. The excavation turned up the remains of a Roman fullonica, a laundry workshop, on the right bank of the Tiber — one more layer under a street that already had several.
Practical information
- Admission to exhibitions is free.
- Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:30–12:30 and 16:30–19:30; hours may vary for private views.
- The gallery is at street level on Via delle Fosse di Castello, between Piazza Adriana and Largo di Porta Castello.
Getting there
Metro line A to Lepanto or Ottaviano, then about ten minutes on foot; buses along Lungotevere Castello and Piazza Pia. From Castel Sant’Angelo the walk is a matter of a minute or two, round the south-western side of the fortress.
Nearby
- Castel Sant’Angelo and the restored moat, immediately alongside.
- Ponte Sant’Angelo and the Bernini angels.
- Piazza Pia and the pedestrian approach to St Peter’s along Via della Conciliazione.
- The Passetto di Borgo, the covered wall-walk from the Vatican to the castle.
Sources
- Galleria Triphè — address, programme and free admission.
- Rome street register (rione Borgo): Via delle Fosse di Castello, from Piazza Adriana to Largo di Porta Castello.
- Reporting on the restoration of the moat of Castel Sant’Angelo within the Piazza Pia works, and on the Roman fullonica found during the excavation.
- Coordinates from OpenStreetMap.
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Record researched and written by Pietro Dente for Cultural Heritage Online, 2026.
Events here — now on & upcoming
- Urbanistica del possibile: Pietro Dente at Triphè, Rome25 Sep 2026 — 30 Oct 2026See the event →
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