Museo degli Innocenti – art, history and architecture in a historic setting

Medals on the façade of the Museo degli Innocenti

The outdoor area of the Museo Degli Innocenti

Highlights

With the Florence City Pass, you can experience the city’s most popular museums, attractions and tours – one ticket, everything included.
Your ticket for the Museo degli Innocenti is already included in your Florence City Pass.
No advance reservation is required for this attraction – your City Pass is your admission ticket.

Around 80 works, spread over three exhibition levels, with masterpieces by Luca and Andrea della Robbia, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Piero di Cosimo and many others
A historical tour dedicated to the history of the hospital and the institute.
Magnificent architecture: one of the first Renaissance buildings ever built and a national artistic heritage of Italy
The Caffè del Verone offers a cafeteria and restaurant service with a charming view of the cathedral. A beautiful terrace in the middle of a magnificent 15th-century loggia offers a wonderful view of the city. Opening hours: Daily from 10 am to 8 pm

Ospedale degli Innocenti: an architectural milestone, an artistic treasure, a humanist institute

What awaits you on site

The Ospedale degli Innocenti (Children’s Hospital) is an architectural masterpiece that combines functionality and beauty, elegance and symmetry: a ‘palace for children’, as the architect Giovanni Michelucci called it. It was originally built as a children’s hospital (the first of its kind in Europe). It was built from 1419 according to a design by Filippo Brunelleschi, making it one of the first Renaissance buildings ever. The museum in the premises was set up to exhibit the works of art from the old Ospedale degli Innocenti. A tour has been set up to give visitors access to a cultural heritage that is unique in the world and is closely linked to the work in favour of children who could not be raised by their families of origin.

The museum, which opened in 2016 after a major redesign, provides information about the history of the Ospedale and also displays, among other things, the main panel ‘Adoration of the Magi’ from the former high altar of the church of the orphanage. It was created by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1488. In addition, works by Luca della Robbia, Andrea della Robbia, Sandro Botticelli and Piero di Cosimo can be seen here. One of the most important works is the Madonna and Child, attributed to Sandro Botticelli.

A unique testimony to the burgeoning humanism of early Renaissance Florence

The Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence is an orphanage that was built in the first half of the fifteenth century according to plans by Filippo Brunelleschi. The building complex now houses a museum, a kindergarten, a primary school and a UNICEF research institute. The museum combines three thematic visitor routes: history, architecture and art. The tour combines these aspects into an exhibition that brings to life the past and present of the Istituto degli Innocenti, which has been working for the rights of children for six centuries. A walk through the rooms immerses the visitor in a unique historical reality.