The Santo Spirito in Sassia complex is, certainly, a point of reference for healthcare and public health in Rome . An iconic building, a few steps from St. Peter's Basilica, which is known as one of the first true public hospital in the city, founded at the behest of pope Innocent III at the beginning of the 13th century. Incredible how Rome is capable of making even a hospital historic and interesting, something that in our minds is not immediately associated with culture, art and beauty. It is certainly not the only example in the city, but perhaps that of Santo Spirito in Sassia is the best preserved. Follow your Rome tour guide on this new journey.

The current building, apart from some subsequent alterations, reflects the desire of pope Sixtus IV (born Francesco della Rovere) to completely renovate Rome at the end of the 15th century, also providing it with a hospital which could be, for the time, modern. One of the examples of the Sistine policy of the renovatio urbis, which gave birth to many artistic gems. Already from this point of view you can notice the beautiful dome with an octagonal drum (the number eight often returns in Sistine architecture), but what really catches the eye is the so-called Sistine Lane. Unfortunately, very few lucky people are allowed access to this long corridor frescoed from the 1470s until the last years of the sixteenth century. In short, incessant work for a simple corridor whose frescoes served to affirm how Pope Sixtus IV (the one of the Sistine Chapel) was a true Great Builder, a man who changed the face of Rome with his construction sites, the its restorations and its changes. The fresco cycle can be divided into three phases. The first concerns the very foundation of the hospital, which began when Innocent III, to avoid the continuous infanticide of those children abandoned by their mothers and usually thrown into the Tiber so as not to be discovered, inaugurated the so-called wheel of the exposed. It is a wooden rotating mechanism that allows you to leave a child on it. By turning, this mechanism brings the child inside the walls, without anyone being able to see who abandoned him from the outside. Then the second phase of the paintings shows us the childhood and career of Sixtus IV. He was still a child when he was initiated into an ecclesiastical career and when he joined the Franciscan order. Miracles or, better yet, divine aid are also ascribed to this pope. In one scene we see a child Francesco della Rovere helped by Saints Anthony of Padua and Francis, whose mother asked for many votes for her son, which saved him from drowning. Finally, among the frescoes, we find death and above all a curious scene that we can call "Presentation of the architectural works of Sixtus IV to the Eternal Father". The pontiff is seen, kneeling and intent on praying, before God. We see the greatest architectural works commissioned by Sixtus IV revolve around the figure of the Pope. We find the model of Ponte Sisto, of the Church of Santa Maria della Pace or of Santa Maria del Popolo.

You see, therefore, how rich the history of Santo Spirito in Sassia is. Furthermore, we must not forget how the hospital building is the direct child of the numerous scholae which, over the centuries, and especially in the Middle Ages, arose around St. Peter's Basilica. A schola was nothing more than a welfare community, run by people of different geographical origins, whose primary purpose was to help, in all possible ways, the pilgrim who came to Rome, perhaps from distant lands. All-round assistance for those pilgrims who, tired and hungry, finally arrived in Rome, perhaps on the occasion of a Jubilee. A red thread that connects us to the hospital and to the Holy Year that is about to inaugurate. Of course, Santo Spirito in Sassia is not a simple hospital!