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A wooden wheel was built into the side of one of Rome's oldest hospitals as part of a policy to reduce infant exposure.
Pope Innocent III's dreams must have been troubled ones: the thought of floating and drowning babies in the Tiber River prompted him to put an end to the all-too-common practice of infant exposure, which was rampant in 12th-century Rome. On the side of Ospedale Santo Spirito along its external wall, a small structure sealed off by a grid contains a wheel that was originally used to receive unwanted children. The building that it is part of is the ancient hospital, originally built in 1198 on land owned by the “Schola Saxonum” and run by an order from France known as the Order of the Holy Spirit. The building has been restored and rebuilt countless times in history, but thankfully, this small unusual element was somehow preserved.
