Convent of Scolopi, Educational palazzo near San Lorenzo Church in Florence, Italy.

The Convent of Scolopi is an educational palazzo in Florence that stretches between Via dei Martelli and Borgo San Lorenzo, featuring a grand late 1600s doorway. Today it houses a classical high school and contains the Ximenian observatory, which holds a collection of historic scientific instruments.

Cosimo I de' Medici granted part of this area to the Jesuits in 1554 to found a college; Bartolomeo Ammannati designed the complex, partly defined by 1579. Work resumed in 1620 under Giulio Parigi, and Giovan Battista Foggini opened a new site in 1688. Leopoldo Pasqui completed the via de' Martelli facade and courtyard in July 1838; since 1878 the Liceo Galileo has occupied part of the building.

The name Scolopi refers to the Piarists, the order that ran the Pious Schools here from 1775 to 1878, after the Jesuits were suppressed. A plaque on the facade records that grant of the Martelli houses, and the almond-shaped shields above carry the Piarists' insignia beside those of the Martelli, the Comune and the chapter of San Lorenzo.

The building operates as a working school and is not freely accessible during class hours. Your best opportunity to explore is outside school hours or during holidays, when public areas may be more open to visitors.

On the right of the doorway at number 9 is a small tabernacle with a marble Madonna and Child, once linked to Bernardo Rossellino and now attributed to the anonymous "Maestro di Via Martelli"; it was restored in 1999. Near the corner of via dei Gori, a second tabernacle holds a 16th-century panel of the head of the Madonna.