Santa Maria della Scala is a former civic hospital in Siena, Tuscany, now a museum. It sits across Piazza del Duomo from Siena Cathedral, and Catherine of Siena is its patron. Legend dates its founding to 898, but the first known document is a deed of gift from March 29, 1090. In 1193 Pope Celestine III made it a lay organization independent of the Cathedral.
The hospital cared for abandoned children, the poor, the sick and pilgrims. It gave pilgrims free lodging in separate halls for men and women. The Pellegrinaio, or Pilgrims' Hall, was the main lodging hall and was built around 1325.
It became part of the university in the 18th century and opened as a museum in 1995. The museum covers over half the complex and includes fragments of Jacopo della Quercia's Fonte Gaia.
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