History

Our relais and its extremely suggestive location, in a narrow, quiet alley just behind Piazza della Signoria, tell a significant, charming piece of Florence’s thousand-year old history.

Hosted in a sixteenth-century carefully restored palace, today our relais comes to new life with a totally modern look, but keeps track of an illustrious past, when it was a noble residence in the most lively part of the historic center.

We are in Chiasso dei Baroncelli, a section of the prominent Chiasso del Buco, an alley that slips like a deep crack along the Uffizi Gallery and Loggia dei Lanzi opening on Piazza della Signoria. It owes its name to the ancient Baroncelli family from Florence, who, during Renaissance time, erected one of their tower-houses right close to our relais. Other noble families of that time – the Tigliamochis, the Gherardinis, the Pulcis, the Raugis – had their home here; coming up to Piazza della Signoria, instead, there were workshops of painters, velvet weavers, locksmiths and shoemakers. Reason why we established a direct contact with the Historical Pharmacy that has all the fragrance that recall these trades. Here you can still see the typical support arches between the buildings and the headquarters of some important guilds such as the Art of Blacksmiths, Masters of Stone and Timber and Shoemakers marked by stone coats of arms that are now almost illegible.

1561 The apothecary - Domenico Brunetti sets up an apothecary in the building belonging to the Nuns of S. Niccolò, close to the Duomo.
1876 From apothecary to modern pharmacy
A sign representing the evengelic scene of the Annunciation is affixed right above the entrance of the historical Florentine apothecary. The shop took the name of Farmacia all’insegna della SS. Annunziata (Pharmacy under the banner of SS. Annunziata).
2021 The celebration of the 460 years anniversary

The picturesque Chiasso del Buco, so called for the presence of a "hole" is practically divided into two parts; the first side, which is accessed from Chiasso Baroncelli, was badly damaged during the German retreat of 1944 and several buildings were rebuilt in the fifties, including the Tower of Salterelli, a family mentioned by Dante in his meeting with his ancestor Cacciaguida (Paradiso XV). The stretch of Via Lambertesca, however, has not undergone major transformations and there is still the fund where the Art of Correggiai had its headquarters (of which remains an ancient stone lintel with the coats of arms).