Raising your head and looking above the wall of the tower of Saint May Major, you will notice a detail that only few know of: embedded between two stones, stands the busto of a woman; for the people of Florence her name is Berta.
There are two hypotheses for the sculpture’s choice of location: the first theory states that the statue was laid there in memory of a fruit seller who gave away all her belongings for the construction of a bell tower that could remind all the tradesmen of the opening and closure of the fruit market; the second, more legendary hypothesis, tells of the apparent slyness of the woman that from her window ordered the people not to give a glass of water to a heretic sentenced to be burned at the stake, as he would’ve been able to extinguish the fire with his powers. After this gesture, the man cursed her with a spell that froze her in stone forever.
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