Santa Maria Nuova Square

Between the Oblate complex and Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, this square embodies centuries of Florence’s history of hospitality and care for people in need and the sick. The hospital dominates the space, its horseshoe form seeming to embrace it. The oldest in the city, it is closely linked to the Portinari family, especially its founder Folco, father of Dante’s Beatrice, and to artists including Domenico Veneziano, Bernardo Buontalenti and Giambologna. A museum route presents the works and heritage accumulated through its long history. The church of Sant’Egidio also belongs to the complex and the square. The Oblate complex forms another boundary. The hospital’s earliest nucleus, it was a convent devoted to caring for the sick and now houses the main municipal library, which bears the Oblate name.