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Ospedale del Ceppo: According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to a pious couple in Pistoia in the 13th century and instructed them to build a hospital on the spot where they would find a tree trunk (or ceppo) flowering in the dead of winter. Founded in 1277, the "Hospital of the Tree Trunk" was enlarged after the year of the Black Death, and again during the 14th and 15th centuries. The loggia, inspired by the style of Brunelleschi, was built between 1512 and 1515 and is decorated with rosettes by Benedetto Buglioni and Giovanni della Robbia (in the first two decades of the 16th century) along with a frieze depicting Acts of Mercy, consisting of six polychrome glazed terracotta panels (1526-1530) by Santi Buglioni and another unglazed tile, produced in 1585 by Filippo Paladini when the original one was destroyed. The Florentine Administrator Leonardo Buonafede, who commissioned the work, is recognisable as the main character in each scene, carrying out exemplary charitable deeds for the faithful. 32 In the 1500s it became the seat of a medical school and in the late 1700s was made the city hospital, a function it still serves today. It also houses the Museum of Surgical Instruments, a collection that includes items dating as far back as the 1600s. The 18th-century Anatomy Room in the garden is decorated with frescoes. |
Former Church and Monastery of San Mercuriale: This church, first mentioned in 1106, was built over the ancient Longobard city walls (8th cent.), which are still partially visible in the foundations where an important Etruscan funerary stone was also discovered. The monastery, earliest records of which date back to 1076, was probably built in the 10th century. It was enlarged in the 14th century, and completely remodelled in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is now a Magistrate's Court. |
Luna nel pozzo: In 1999, this square, which previously had a well in it, became the location of a work by Pistoian artist Gianni Ruffi, romantically entitled "The Moon in the Well". |
CNA Pistoia - Impresa+s.coop. Realizzato da SIS Informatica. |