Often written as rione XI - Sant'Angelo, it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand.

The Cestian and Fabrician bridges, built during the 1st century BC to connect the island with the right and the left bank respectively, further increased the importance of the area.

The area housed the Circus Flaminius, which lay near the Capitoline Hill and the Forum and served as the site of the Comitia Plebis as well as the starting point for Roman triumphs.

[2] In addition to their rehabilitated temples, the Portico of Octavia also included Greek and Latin libraries and 34 bronze statues by Lysippos portraying Alexander the Great and the soldiers who fell during the Battle of the Granicus.

Several factors played an important role in this transformation: first, the size and solidity of construction; then, the closeness to the Tiber (after the rupture of the aqueducts during the Gothic war, the river became the only source of drinking water for the city).

Finally, the possibility of controlling the access to the right bank via the Pons Fabricius, Cestius and Aemilius,[6] the only bridges which were still in place inside the Aurelian walls by that time.

On the wall near the Portico is still visible a copy of the marble plaque (the original can be seen in the Musei Capitolini), whose length gives the maximum size of the fishes which could be sold whole.

[12] In the 16th century, the Savelli had built on the top of the Theatre of Marcellus a beautiful palace, the work of Baldassarre Peruzzi, later owned by the Orsini.

A Jewish colony was present in Rome since the beginning of the Christian era, but the Jews by then had been living in Transtiberim, near the Port of Ripa Grande.

By that time, in Rome there were about 2,000 Jews: 1,200 were living in Sant'Angelo (where they totaled 80 per cent of the population), 350 in Regola, 200 in Ripa, while the others were distributed among the remaining districts.

[15] On 14 July 1555, Pope Paul IV, one of the champions of the Counter-Reformation, promulgated the Bull "Cum nimis absurdum", where he revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and enclosed them in a walled district,[16] the Ghetto.

The Christians who were owners of the houses placed inside the Ghetto could keep the property but, thanks to the so-called "jus gazzagà" (right of possession) they could neither evict the Jews nor raise the rents.

[25] Every Saturday, the Jewish community was forced to hear compulsory sermons[26] in front of the small church of San Gregorio a Ponte Quattro Capi, just outside the wall.

The 17th and the 18th centuries passed without noteworthy events: the center of gravity of the Church had already moved from the Lateran to the Vatican and Borgo, and the Capitol lost its importance as a residential area in favor of the Campo Marzio plain.

Great walls were built along the river, in order to avoid prevent flooding, and this caused the demolition of the picturesque row of houses which were mirrored in the Tiber.

The only part of Sant'Angelo which can still give an idea of the old Ghetto is along the lane named Via della Reginella, which was included in the walled district only during the 19th century.

Then, in 1940, in the north side of the rione, the street Via delle Botteghe Oscure was drastically enlarged, and there also churches and palaces fell victim to the pickaxe.

During the German occupation of Rome in World War II, the Jewish community was forced to pay 50 kg gold to the SS, to avoid deportation to the Nazi concentration camps.

The roads around the Portico d'Ottavia keep the atmosphere of a village, and host several small shops (also run by Jews) and many Trattorie, which, with their fried artichokes and filet of stockfish, perpetuate the tradition of the Jewish Roman cooking.

Sant'Angelo hosts also several cultural institutions, such as the Enciclopedia Italiana, the Discoteca Nazionale and the Centro di Studi Americani, which holds the most important library of Americana in Europe.

To the west, the rione borders with Regola, from which is separated by Piazza delle Cinque Scole and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto.