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Mysterious Florence: the window that is always open
If you have been to
Piazza Santissima Annunziata you might have noticed a window that remains open
all year round, whether it's summer or winter, so much so that the Florentines
have renamed it "the window that is
always open". It is located on
the top floor of Palazzo Grifoni, right on the corner between it and the Loggia
dei Servi di Maria, a loggia built in the 16th century to a design by Antonio
da Sangallo the Elder and Baccio d'Agnolo, taking up the design of the Spedale
degli innocenti designed by Filippo Brunelleschi.
Legend has it that the room from which
the window overlooks the square is haunted by a ghost, the restless ghost
of a woman who lived centuries ago. The woman lived here with her beloved until
he had to enlist to go to war and leave her. On the day of his departure she said
goodbye and watched him ride away on his horse from that very window.
From that day the woman continued to wait in vain for the return of her love
from the front, time passed and there was no trace of him, while she looked out
of the window every day hoping to see him arrive on horseback just as she had
seen him leave . This long and heartbreaking wait and her concern unfortunately
led the woman to an untimely death. After burying her, her relatives went to
close the window in her room and it was at this point that disturbing phenomena began to happen: furniture that moved by itself,
paintings that fell and lights that suddenly went out.
As soon as the window was reopened, everything returned
to normal.
Since then the window has always been kept open, to appease the soul of the
ghost of the woman, who is still waiting, looking out the window, for the
return of her beloved.
As with all legends, there is also a second version of the story. According to
some, in fact, in that room lived a woman of the Grifoni family, whom the Grand
Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de Medici, loved secretly. Her jealous husband
forced her to keep the window closed all the times. This is why the gaze of the
equestrian statue of Ferdinand I is turned towards this very window which is
now always kept open.
In the end, both stories are about love, it is up to you to choose which one to
believe.