Artists from across Italy came to stay in Lyon, which opened the city's gates to Quattrocento ideas. The Villa Florentine was constructed at the height of this opulent period  on the hillside of Fourvière, from where it towers majestically over the Saône.
The building was known as the "Maison de la Providence" in 1707, at which time it became home to a congregation of Trinitarians. The purpose of the institution, which was founded by Louise-Blanche Thérèse de Ballon, was to provide young girls with sufficient an education so that they could earn their own income when they turned twenty.
Between 1736 and 1741, a chapel was built on to the building, decorated with magnificent frescoes. Discovered and restored, these frescoes now grace the walls of the Villa's grand entrance hall.
The Trinitarians left the Fourvière hillside and moved to the centre of Lyon in 1804. At this time, the establishment became a convalescent home for women and was extended with the construction of a further building between the chapel and the southern patio.
One hundred years later, the site passed into the hands of the "L'œuvre des Jeunes Filles Convalescentes", until 1984, when the Giorgi family took over the Villa Florentine and shaped its destiny yet again.