But I’ve left the most curious part of this piazza till the end. When facing the church, pay attention to the impressive building on your right - you can’t miss it if you search for the little sculptures of babies all around the front loggia. Known as the Ospedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents), this place is actually Europe’s oldest foundling hospital! For centuries, it acted as home to the abandoned children. Commissioned by one of wealthier guilds in the city, the Silk Guild of Florence, in 1419, this places was deigned by no other than Filippo Brunelleschi himself! The guild decided to create this orphanage as a charity institution in response to an increased number of abandoned children in Florence - some accounts even say that corpses of children were sometimes found in the Arno river! In this hospital, the babies and children were cared for, fed, raised, and taught the various skills. Boys were taught work skills based on their abilities, while girls were taught the typical domestic skills and were provided with dowries, should they decided to get married (those who didn’t want to marry had an option to become nuns or get training in the manual labour). Later, the girls were tried to be placed into influential and even noble families for marriage. To encourage leaving the unwanted children there rather than killing them, a wheel for secret refuge was placed there - and you can still see it in the left corner of the loggia - so that parents could leave their children anonymously. The rotating wheel would then bring the baby inside, without the parent being seen.

Today you can visit the museum inside ex-orphanage, housing important Renaissance artworks and historical accounts, but there’s another secret to be uncovered in this building.