The Basilica of the Annunciation is the main shrine of Florence, home of the order served. The church is located in the square in the north-east of the city center, close to the Hospital of the Innocents, and has been for centuries the center of city life.  Existed in this area, traditionally from 1081, an oratorio based on the time of Matilda of Canossa as a votive offering by the end of the siege of Henry IV and dedicated to Our Lady. In 1233 he was virtually abandoned, and was asked the bishop Ardengo Trotti by seven young Florentines who had a double vision of the Virgin weeping at the continuing discord towns, 15 August and 8 September of that year. With the dedication to Mary of Sorrows, they founded a company, retiring in penance and prayer on a mountain at the edge of Mugello said "Asinario" contract today Montesenario, 18 km north of the city. The road to the hermitage went right out the door that overlooked Balla on the current Via de 'Servi, and the oratory on the site of the future basilica was particularly convenient in their travels.

In 1250 the company, which had meanwhile been popularly rititolata as the Servants of Mary, laid the foundation stone for the construction of a larger church. This first church and the adjoining convent, were those of Santa Maria dei Servi di Cafaggio, the names of the religious order and the place where it was built, located outside the walls of Florence and Balla Porta. The first certain news about its construction is a notarial deed dated 17 March 1250 by which the bishop of Siena Bonfiglio - the seat of Florence was then vacant - granted to the friars to build a church near the walls, also delivering the first stone. The first stone was evidently placed March 25, 1250, feast of the Annunciation which that year fell on Good Friday. The year after the church was finished at least in the major facilities.