The Ospedale Nuovo Di Santo Spirito
On the southest edge of the square there is the building of Ospedale Nuovo di Santo Spirito ("New Hospital of Holy Spirit") built in 1257 by Giovanni di Simone maybe over a preexisting hospital. The function of this hospital was to help pilgrims, poor, sick people and abandoned children with a shelter. It later changed its name in Ospedale della Misericordia ("Hospital of the Mercy") or di Santa Chiara ("Sant Claire") that was the name of the little church included in the complex.
The exterior was in brick walls with two-light windows in gothic style, whereas the interior was painted in two colors, black and white, to imitate the marble colors of the other buildings. During the Medici domination of the city, in 1562, the hospital was restructured according to Florentine renaissance canons: all the doors and windows were modified with new rectangular ones encased in gray sandstone.
Nowadays the building is no more an hospital. In the middle part of it, since 1979 is host the Museum of Sinopias where are kept the original drawings of the Camposanto frescoes.
Read more about this topic: Piazza Dei Miracoli