It was a wooden device through which mothers – often alone or in severe difficulty – could anonymously entrust their children to the care of the nuns. It was a painful gesture, but for many women it represented the only chance of salvation for those children.
The stronger newborns managed to survive and grew up within the convent, cared for by the sisters. The more fragile ones, sadly, did not make it and were buried in the cemetery attached to the convent, which today corresponds to the area where the Medaglie d’Oro parking lot stands, just behind the religious building.
This same cemetery also hosted the illegitimate children of the local nobles, born outside marriage. In some cases, mothers would secretly visit their graves, protected by silence and anonymity.
Popular tales also tell of another, darker and more controversial story. It is said that, along the underground passage connecting the convent of Santa Croce to that of San Domenico, secret encounters took place between nuns and Dominican friars. From these alleged clandestine relations, children would have been born, who – again according to rumor – were later abandoned along the same underground passage, in an attempt to conceal their existence forever.