Page 249 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

V A TIC AN  247

by Pope Sixtus IV to care for the
poor pilgrims expected for the
Holy Year. Sixtus’s hospital was
a radical building. Cloisters
divided the different types of
patients; one area is still reserved
for orphans, and their nurses.
Unwanted infants were passed
through a revolving barrel-like
contraption called the rota, still
visible to the left of the central
entrance in Borgo Santo Spirito,
to guarantee anonymity. Martin
Luther, who visited in 1511, was
shocked by the number of
abandoned children he saw,
believing them to be “the sons
of the pope himself.”
In the center, under the
hospital’s conspicuous drum, is
an octagonal chapel, where mass
was said for patients. This room
can be visited, but the rest of the
build ing still functions as
a hospital.

Rusticated doorway of the Palazzo dei Convertendi
of Santo Spirito. To the left of the 8 Palazzo dei
entrance is the Spezieria, or Penitenzieri
Pharmacy. This still has the
wheel used for grinding the bark Via della Conciliazione 33. Map 3 C3.
of the cinchona tree to produce Tel/Fax 06-6989 2930. @ 23, 34, 62,
the drug quinine, first introduced 64. Open 2:30–5pm Mon–Fri; groups
here in 1632 by Jesuits from by appt only (by fax). &
Peru as a cure for malaria.
Above the courtyard is The palazzo owes its name
The rota of Santo Spirito, where mothers a splendid clock (1827). to the fact that the
left unwanted babies The dial is divided place was once home
into six; it was not to the confessors
until 1846 that (penitenzieri) of St.
6 Palazzo del the familiar division Peter’s. Now partly
Commendatore of the day into two housing the Hotel
periods of 12 hours Columbus, it was
Borgo Santo Spirito 3. Map 3 C3. was introduced in originally built by
@ 23, 34, 46, 62, 64. Open courtyard Rome by Pope Pius IX. Cardinal Domenico
is open to the public. Della Rovere arms della Rovere in 1480.
The palazzo still bears
As director of the Hospital of 7 Palazzo dei the family’s coat of arms, the
Santo Spirito, the Commen- Convertendi oak tree (rovere means oak),
datore not only oversaw the on its graceful courtyard
running of the hospital, he was Via della Conciliazione 43. Map 3 C3. wellhead. On the cardinal’s
@ 23, 34, 62, 64. Closed to the
also responsible for its estates public. death, the palazzo was
and revenues. This important acquired by Cardinal Francesco
post was originally given to With the building of Via della Alidosi, Pope Julius II della
members of the pope’s family. Conciliazione in the 1930s, Rovere’s favorite. Suspected
The palazzo, built next door Palazzo dei Convertendi was of treason, the cardinal was
to the hospital, has a spacious taken down and later moved murdered in 1511 by the
16th-century frescoed loggia to this new site nearby. The pope’s nephew, the Duke of
appropriate to the dignity and house, partly attributed to Urbino, who took over the
sobriety of its owners. The the architect Bramante, is palazzo. A few of the rooms
frescoes represent the story of where the artist Raphael of the palazzo still contain
the founding of the Hospital died in 1520. beautiful frescoes.

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