Hospital of Innocents, Renaissance museum in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence, Italy
The Ospedale degli Innocenti is a 15th-century building on Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, now housing a museum on child care. Its facade has a nine-bay loggia of round arches on Composite-order columns of grey pietra serena, with glazed blue terracotta roundels of swaddled babies by Andrea della Robbia in the spandrels. A narrow bell tower with a clock rises at the left end of the roof.
The institution was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi in 1419 and funded by the Silk Guild to care for abandoned children. It is considered the first orphanage in Europe and continued its work of supporting foundlings for over six centuries.
The name "Spedale" comes from old Florentine dialect for charitable houses that also sheltered the poor, widows and pilgrims; this one, reserved for abandoned children, was named after the biblical massacre of the innocents. The Silk Guild funded it through a compulsory contribution from its members, and an elected "spedalingo" with three "operai" ran it. The museum, reopened in 2016, holds the art collection and records of the institution.
The loggia faces Piazza Santissima Annunziata, a few steps above the square, with a further bay at each end reached without steps. The museum occupies the upper floor above the portico, entered from the courtyard side. The piazza is shared with the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata and the Loggia dei Servi di Maria, so the arcade is a public passage rather than a museum entrance.
A revolving wheel built into the outer wall allowed parents to leave infants anonymously, with each child receiving a recognition token for possible future identification. Some of these tokens are now displayed in the museum, showing how families tried to keep the possibility of future reunion open.
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