Museums: Museo degli Innocenti (Part 4 of 4)

In an earlier series of posts in November last year, we visited a museum not far from our apartment, the Museum of the Innocents, or the Museo degli Innocenti.  The building was once a convent and orphanage for children abandoned at birth. 

When we toured the museum, the façade was covered with scaffolding in connection with extensive renovation.  The scaffolding has since been removed and the façade looks like new.

Façade of the Museo degli Innocenti following renovation completed at the end of 2016)

With the removal of the scaffolding, visitors can now access the loggia of the museum and see the beautiful frescoes above the main entrance.

Main entrance of the former Instituto degli Innocenti

The plaque next to the main entrance

A fresco directly above the main entrance

Another fresco painted on the ceiling over the main entrance

What is even more interesting to see is the actual admissions window of the orphanage.  The window is located on the loggia under the façade.  The admissions is covered with an iron grate with very small openings through which newborns entered were passed.  The openings in the grate were very small by design so only unwanted newborns could be left, not older children.  

The admissions window

The plaque under the admission window. The orphanage took in foundlings for more than 400 hundred years until 1875.

A drawing of the admissions window by Giuseppe Moricci (about 1854)

One of our visitors thought the concept of the admissions window was ingenious.  The visitor regretted not knowing about the window when his/her children were teenagers.  In any event, we pointed out that the openings in the grate were too small for a typical teenager to fit through.  The response was "I'm not so sure about that".