Santissima Annunziata Square

Piazza Santissima Annunziata owes its Renaissance character to Brunelleschi’s loggia for the Hospital of the Innocents, home to the museum of the same name. The hospital’s harmonious forms shaped the whole square: its portico was later echoed in the Servites’ loggia and the church façade. Brunelleschi’s design thus became an urban plan, underlined by the square’s being one of the few places with a view of the cathedral dome, the symbol of fifteenth-century Florence. The square also plays an important religious, cultural and economic role, closely tied to the Servants of Mary. An image of the Annunciation believed to be miraculous makes the church a major devotional centre for pilgrims and processions. Until 1750 the feast of the Annunciation, 25 March, also marked the beginning of Florence’s civil year. The square was therefore a special setting for the Florentine New Year, both a civic and religious celebration. At its centre stands the equestrian monument to Grand Duke Ferdinando I de’ Medici, begun by Giambologna and completed by his pupil Pietro Tacca. Tacca also created the two fountains of sea monsters at the sides in 1629. At the corner of the church façade is Florence’s National Archaeological Museum, one of Italy’s most important, with fine Egyptian, Etruscan and Greco-Roman collections. The square also hosts one of the city’s most distinctive popular traditions, the Rificolona lantern festival, on the evening of 7 September, the eve of the Virgin Mary’s Nativity.