The bronze statue on top Castel Sant'Angelo (formerly tomb of the Emperor Hadrian) It's one of Rome's icons, still it can be interesting to take a closer look to it.
The first interesting aspect is the position the Angel is in: he is in the act of putting his sword back into the scabbard. This statue is actually the materialization of a dream: it depicts a vision had by Pope Gregorius Magnus (Gregory I the Great, 6th Century A.D.) who was worried by a plague which hit the population of Rome and which seemed to be neverending. The Pope understood this plague was a punishment sent by God for the wrong behaviour of the Romans, but also that the plague was about to end because he saw the Angel Michael was putting his sword away, after such a dream, he ordered a procession to beg forgiveness, and the plague suddenly ended.
This vision and the related miracle stayed in the heart and in the tales of the Roman people, so long that the statue we can admire today was erected only in rhw middle of 18th Century A.D. Later in the same century, the Bell of Mercy was added, a Bell used to announce the execution of death penalty sentences which, in that era, were quite frequent.
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