THE MUSEO DEGLI INNOCENTI WILL REOPEN ON 24th JUNE

After 3 years of work and 12.8 million € invested, on 24^th June 2016 the Museo degli Innocenti will re-open to the public. Inaugurated on January 25^th 1445, the old Spedale degli Innocenti (Hospital of the Innocents) was the first specialized orphanage in Europe and one of the first Renaissance architecture in the world, now a national center for documentation and analysis on childhood and adolescence, national and European reference point for the promotion of children’s right.

Initially abandoned children could be placed in a basin like a font, located under the porch, replaced later by a reinforced window. Since 1660 the mothers could lean their children, ring the bell and let them to enter in the shelter  without being seen. Often they used to leave with their children letters or broken half medals, with which they hoped to get back in better times. On the night of June 3^rd 1875 the baby hatch was walled.

500,000 children safeguarded, 1655 square meters of space for events and educational activities and 1,456 square meters of exhibition path, these are the numbers of the Hospital of the Innocents, today Istituto degli Innocenti, open daily from 10 am to 7 pm.

The structure of the museum is organized as follows:

– In the basement there’s the history and evolution of the Institute of the Innocents through biographies and personal memories of the children welcomed and housed in the structure;
– On the ground floor the architectural route recounts the evolution of the ancient Spedale reconstructing the subsequent interventions of the building renovation;
– On the second floor there is a gallery which houses the most precious works of art, and the preyer Choir of the nurses.
– On the top, the fifteenth-century terrace houses a literary cafe, the Cafe of Verone.

The porch of Brunelleschi, the foundling wheel, the church of St. Mary of the Innocent and 10 cherubs by Andrea della Robbia, these are some of the treasures present and to visit.

On the occasion of the reopening on 24.06.2016, the museum that is located in the Piazza della Santissima Annunziata 12, will follow this open schedule: from 10 am to 6 pm. The entire entrance fee is € 7.00, while the reduced price ticket is 5.00 €.
For more information and to get all the detailed types of prices, visit http://www.istitutodeglinnocenti.it/?q=content/home