Residence near Spedale degli Innocenti
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, at 150 metres from Residence Hilda is one of the most beautiful squares in Florence and is undoubtedly the dearest one for the people of Florence from a religious point of view. Indeed, it represents one of the oldest places of charity in the world, especially because of the Spedale degli Innocenti (1445): not just an orphanage (the first in Europe), but the first foundling hospital in the world. The institution soon specialized in receiving newborn babies who were abandoned for whatever reason (hence named "the Innocents").
Piazza della Santissima Annunziata is also an unparalleled architectural masterpiece, the first example of renaissance architecture origination from multiple contributions by the top artists of the time: from Antonio da Sangallo the Elder to Michelozzo, from Leon Battista Alberti to Brunelleschi. This latter designed the Loggia of Spedale degli Innocenti, then replicated in three of the four sides that define the Piazza: an effect of harmony and balance which leaves visitors amazed and full of admiration still nowadays.
The main sites of interest in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata are: