This wonderfully harmonious Renaissance piazza is famous for the Hospital of the Innocents (the first orphanage in Europe) designed by none other than Brunelleschi (architect of the cupola). I just heard that the balanced set of buildings on one side of the square and the other were meant to reflect the balanced books much prized by the Florentine bankers who bankrolled the buildings.
This is the famous revolving cradle where mothers could leave their babies. They could pull on a bell chord and walk away. Then, the nuns would turn this human Lazy Susan and take the babies into the orphanage. The Renaissance version of the Safe Haven law.
Ferdinando I (a Medici, of course) with a pigeon hat. It appears that Ferdinando was a pretty fair ruler, even though there is a good chance that he had his brother and sister-in-law poisoned ... but that's pretty run-of-the-mill for the Medici.
I walk through this square every day on my way to work.
Someone has been busy this morning!
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