King’s children in Vrlika

Sa？etak The first shelters in Europe were established on the Apennine Peninsula. The Venetians brought their practice of institutionalizing abandoned children to Dalmatia. A shelter was opened in Split as a result of efforts used by Archbishop Stefano Cosmi in 1704. The hygienic and financial conditions of the shelter in Split were poor. This resulted in very high child death rates. Better chances of survival were afforded to children assigned to be fed by external nursing women in Dalmatian Zagora. Consequently, two hundred and four inmates arrived in Vrlika and the surrounding area. Less than half of them survived to see their twelfth birthday