La Schola Saxonum was conceived by the king as a sort of reception center for his compatriots, who arrived in Rome every year on pilgrimage to visit the tomb of Saint Peter. The entire complex was rebuilt in 1198, during the papacy of Innocent III, by Marchionne D’Arezzo.
The reconstruction work was necessary following fires and looting that severely damaged the structures of the complex. The Pope decided to entrust the Order of the Hospitallers of the Holy Spirit with founding a kind of hospital to accommodate the poor, the sick, and wards, that is, all those children abandoned by their mothers. Between 1471 and 1478, the complex was partly rebuilt and expanded, following the design of architect Baccio Pontelli, by the will of Pope Sixtus IV. The cycle of frescoes in the Sistine Ward is due to the initiative of Sixtus IV and depicts the history of the ancient hospital and the Sistine refoundation.
The Sistine Ward is divided in two by an octagonal tiburium and houses inside an altar attributed to Palladio and a painting by Carlo Maratta. During the pontificate of Pius V, the complex was further expanded, and the construction of the Palazzo del Commendatore, the work of architect Giovanni Lippi known as Nanni di Baccio Bigio, was ordered. In the nineteenth century, the two wings that make up the Sistine Ward were named Sala Lancisi and Sala Baglivi, after two well-known doctors.
The entrance is dominated by a wonderful marble portal, called the Paradise and attributed to the school of Andrea Bregno.
