People Florence

The Men in Black

A brotherhood that has carried the sick since the thirteenth century, once with black hoods over their faces.

1 min readMisericordia di Firenze

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The founding of the Misericordia, painted by Eleuterio Pagliano

For centuries, anyone who came here to collect a sick or a dead person wore a black cloak with a hood that covered the whole face, with two holes for the eyes. It wasn't a threat but a kind of modesty: no one needed to know who was helping, and the person being helped never knew who they owed.

The Misericordia started in 1244 and still does the work today. During outbreaks of the plague, the brothers carried the dead out of the houses, in wartime they moved the wounded, and in 1966, when the flooded Florence, they pulled people from the drowned streets.

Today they run ambulances from this address, mostly with volunteers who take shifts alongside their day jobs. The black hood only comes out now for ceremonies.

Diagonally across from the corner of the you'll find an open stone , and that's where the last stop waits.

Stop 6 of 7The foundlings and their care0 min walk · 7 stories · Free
← Stop 5Open for seven hundred yearsStop 7 →Three Days Under the Arches
Map showing Misericordia di Firenze, Piazza del Duomo 19-20, 50122 Firenze FI, Italië
Misericordia di Firenze, Piazza del Duomo 19-20, 50122 Firenze FI, ItaliëFlorence
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Sources. Story: Arciconfraternita della Misericordia di Firenze (storia e attività); Comune di Firenze (Misericordia, sede di Piazza del Duomo) Photos: Eleuterio Pagliano, the founding of the Compagnia della Misericordia in Florence, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

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