Santa Maria della Scala

One of Europe's oldest hospitals, now a vast museum complex

Facing the Duomo across the cathedral square, Santa Maria della Scala is now a single ticketed museum covering several floors and centuries of accumulated buildings. The highlights are the Sala del Pellegrinaio (frescoes of medieval hospital care by Domenico di Bartolo), the original marble reliefs from the Fonte Gaia by Jacopo della Quercia, and the underground Etruscan collection in the deep cellars.

Allow at least two hours; it is genuinely vast, and the lower levels are often empty.

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A story
The hospital was active from the 9th century until 1995 — well over a thousand years of continuous medical use, founded originally to care for pilgrims on the Via Francigena between Canterbury and Rome. The frescoes in the Sala del Pellegrinaio show 15th-century hospital scenes that are as much social documentary as art.

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