Palazzo Grifoni is a historic building in Florence overlooking the square of Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. It has a window with a very unusual history. For decades, it has always been open, rain or shine. However, no one has lived in the flat for a long time. This seemingly bizarre detail actually conceals a mysterious story known in the city as the legend of the ghost of the Santissima Annunziata.
The ghost of the Santissima Annunziata, just a legend?
The legend’s protagonist is a young woman from the Florentine nobility. She married a prominent member of the Grifoni family, who owned an ancient palace in Piazza della Santissima Annunziata. The marriage was a happy one and the couple were madly in love. However, due to war, the two were destined to be separated. The noble Grifoni had to leave to serve his city in a distant place, wearing his knight’s armour. From that day on, his bride waited feverishly for him, torn between fearing that she would never see him again and hoping for his swift return, spying on the square from the palace window. Thus, the years passed, while she sat sadly embroidering on a wooden bench to pass the time1.
The nobleman Griffoni never returned. The young woman waited for him in vain all her life until she became old. And so she was found lifeless just near the palace window over which she had sighed so much.
After the woman’s funeral, her relatives sealed the room and barred the window. According to legend, however, the lights went out at that very moment and objects began flying around the room. Panicking, the deceased’s family members raised the window shutters, and suddenly everything returned to normal. The window has never been blocked again since then: the woman’s spirit still looks out towards the square of Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, waiting for her husband to return.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- Franco Ciarleglio, Lo struscio fiorentino, Polistampa, Firenze 2003 ↩︎
