Sacred Spaces, Civic Duties: The Hospital of the Innocents and the Florentine Ideal of Charity

This talk explores the Hospital of the Innocents (Ospedale degli Innocenti), designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, as a landmark of Renaissance architecture and a powerful symbol of civic charity and religious piety in early 15th-century Florence. Commissioned by the silk guild (Arte della Seta) and completed in 1445, the hospital was one of the first institutions in Europe dedicated to the care of abandoned and orphaned children. More than a functional building, the structure itself expressed a new vision of social responsibility and public virtue, shaped by both Christian values and humanist ideals.

We will examine how the architectural design—its elegant loggia, harmonious proportions, and symbolic details—reflects the Renaissance emphasis on order, beauty, and moral purpose. The talk also considers the role of charity in Florentine society, showing how elite patronage and guild involvement in social welfare were both acts of devotion and instruments of civic pride. By situating the Hospital…