Basilica della Santissima Annunziata Maggiore
Baroque basilica whose foundling wheel once took in abandoned infants, later fronted by its own charitable bank.
This guide to the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata Maggiore in Naples follows the wooden foundling wheel built into its wall, which took in abandoned infants anonymously for roughly five and a half centuries, and the bank the church founded in 1587 to pay for raising them. It traces the Banco dell'Ave Gratia Plena's operations in the courtyard behind the wheel, a cashier named Fulvio De Falco who forged credit certificates in 1652, and the basilica's later rebuilding by royal architect Luigi Vanvitelli after a 1757 fire. The wheel itself still stands inside, its wood worn smooth by hands that were never meant to be seen.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.