Tourist attractions Pistoia

This vast square is seductive both for the harmony of its proportions and for the variety of its buildings, both civic and religious. The cathedral that is in front of its baptistry , the old Episcopal palace, the Palazzo Communale, which is linke..

The best surviving example of a quintessential Tuscan villa, Villa Medicea “Ambra” was built in 1479 and altered in the 18C-19C (pediment and staircase). Many rooms were decorated in the 19C for King Vittorio Emanuele II. Note the unusual coffered ce..

A visit to this palace will take you on an archaeological trip in the course of which there are remains showing the history of the Palace and also of the land on which it was built. There are remains of the Roman walls, the Via Cassia, Etruscan funer..

The marble dressed facade brings together a sober Pisa Romanesque style and a Florentine Renaissance style. The curious campanile is a veritable thesaurus of styles which is all its own! Inside, the Baroque chancel covered in gilding contrasts with t..

This Gothic baptistry (14 C) was built to plans by Andrea Pisano . It is octagonal and dressed in bands of alternative white and grey marble and is crowned with elegant blind arcades. The tympanum on the main doorway (notice the small pulpit) was sc..

This octagonal Renaissance building is topped with a monumental dome bringing to mind the one that Brunelleschi designed for the cathedral at Florence. The Church was built to house the miraculous image of the Humble Virgin, the patron saint of Pisto..

This 8C church was much extended in the 12C and has an attractive Romanesque Pisa style facade, with five blind arcades with fine capitals and white and green marble decoration. The interior, very spare in style, has a wonderful architectural purity...

The architecture is part Romanesque, part Gothic, and the former residence of the “captain of the people” (holder in the Middle Ages of executive power) dominates a charming little square adorned by a graceful bronze fountain of the child Bacchus by ..

Half-Romanesque, half-Gothic, this cathedral forms a most harmonious ensemble. Of note is the external circular pulpit, intended for the presentation of the Holy Girdle and, inside, the Chapel of the Holy Girdle. However, it is the frescoes by Filip..

In the 11C castle of the Guidi Counts is a museum devoted to models (more than a hundred) of machines made following the drawing of this local genius.

Grand duke Ferdinand 1 Medici commissioned this vast construction at the end of the 16th century. the villa stands on a grass-terrace dotted with metal structures and is distinguished by its large number of chimneys in an equally large number of styl..

These tombs date back to the 7C BC. The best preserved is the tomb de Montefortini , situated under a great wooden burial mound which is made up of an approach corridor, an entrance hall and a rectangular funerary chamber.

This was built from the 12C to the 14C and has been much extended since. Notice the north side which stands above the Via Cavour, with its long and spectacular striped mass which in a curious way takes the place of the facade. Inside, the Visitati..

The palace was an ancient monastery of the hospitaliers of St Anthony, and today contains the documentation Centre devoted to the great sculptor Marino Marini who was originally from Pistoia. It was set up with a donation from the artist himself an..

This disused chapel, which owes its name to the T of the Greek alphabet which used to adorn the tunics of the monks of the hospitalier order St Anthony, is well known for its Gothic frescoes created by the artists of Pistoia.

The old palace of the podestat or governing Magistrate was extended from the 14C to the 19C. Of the original building there remains only the entrance doorway, the Gothic twin bay windows on the first floor and, in the courtyard surrounded by a portic..

This Gothic palace was built between 1294 and 1385. The austerity of its massive facade on arcades is happily tempered by elegant Gothic twin or triple bay windows, and by the small delicate wrought-iron central balcony. At the centre and the corners..

This museum is set up in the civic palace and brings together a collection of paintings and sculptures from the 13 to the 19C; among the works are four Renaissance retables on the subject of the Holy conversation and a work by Mattia Preti (1613-1..

Adjoining the Piazza del Duomo, this charming square is decorated with the graceful pozzo del Leoncino , a well which, as the name says, is topped by a small lion leaning his front forepaw on the chequerboard escutcheon of the city.

This hospital founded in 1277 owes its name to a hollowed-out tree trunk which was used to receive the offerings. The elegant Renaissance portico in front of the facade was added in 1514. However it is its wonderful varnished terracotta frieze , fro..