Pistoia artistic itineraries
- A journey from the station to the hospital strain
- Route B from the piazza del Duomo Pantheon of famous Italians
A journey from the station to the hospital strain
Just arrived at the station walk to via XX Settembre, cross piazza Treviso and then continue by Vannucci. From here we turn in the course Fedi which opens Piazza San Domenico, where we can visit the complex of the Dominicans.
Chiesa di San Domenico
Built in the late thirteenth century, has undergone changes over the centuries XVII and XVIII. Inside collects numerous works of major artistic importance, among which should be reported the three monumental tombs, with particular emphasis on those of Blessed Lorenzo and Filippo Lazzari, attributed to Rossellino. In the chapel of the transept of note are the tombs of the family Rospigliosi, the school of Bernini. No less important are the paintings visible, such as the Cavalcade of the Magi by Benozzo Gozzoli and St Jerome variously considered the Pollaiolo or Verrocchio, both of the frescoes are now displayed in the sacristy.
Crispi just taken away is the church and the convent of Sant'Antonio Abate.
Former Church of Sant'Antonio Abate
Built in the second half of the fourteenth century convent next to the Annex, the Church was governed by the Canons Regular of the Tau or St. Anthony Abbot. It became a museum, you can see the collections of the Marine Museum and simultaneously observed on the walls a series of frescoes of the most interesting run in the second half of the fourteenth century in Pistoia, by Nicholas Thomas and Florence in part, perhaps, of pistoiese Antonio Vite, a pupil of Gherardo Starnini.
Proceed along Via Crispi at the end of which meets, at the corner of Via Cavour, the church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas.
Chiesa di San Giovanni Fuorcivitas
This ancient church, rebuilt in the XII century and expanded during the fourteenth century, is known Fuorcivitas because it was built outside the walls of the city early. The exterior has a striped lining dichromate in marble that also the structural elements such as pillars and arches blind and is adorned by sculptures, among which stands out the bas-relief depicting the Last Supper, which adorns the lintel of the north side portal. By entering you are immediately in front of one of the masterpieces that this church: the refined water probably carried out by Giovanni Pisano in a single block of alabaster, rich in suggestive transparencies. Continuing the tour we can admire the Visitation in terracotta by Luca della Robbia, the polyptych by Taddeo Gaddi and the pulpit of William Pisano.
Exit, in front of the church is the glorious coffee Valiani that among its most distinguished visitors includes Verdi, Leoncavallo and Puccini. Proceeds in the oratory of Saint Anthony Abbot, the restaurant retains splendid ceilings and fourteenth-century frescoes. Continuing along Via Cavour you pay attention, at the crossroads with Via dei Frenai, the building that we built, is the residence of Panciatichi, a noble family of origin pistoiese. Then we continue by Palestro Pacini and so is curved in San Bartolomeo that leads to a square.
Church of San Bartolomeo in Pantano
Founded around 760 by Gaidoaldo, archiater Adelchi and Desiderius, the last king Lombard, the church was rebuilt in Romanesque style in the twelfth century. The facade appears divided into two parts, the lower is decorated in green and white marble and the upper part is brick. One such detachment is due to net implementation of the fa?ade in two distinct phases. Deserves attention in the pulpit by Guido da Como Bigarello and wooden crucifix, whose cross was derived from a tree trunk.
You go back in Pacini and follow until you reach piazza Giovanni XXIII which overlooks the ancient hospital of strain.
Spedale of strain
Founded in 1277, was expanded after the plague of 1348. If inside you can visit the Museum of Surgical Ferri, the outside is that there is a true masterpiece to be admired, that the decoration of the porch with rosettes of Giovanni della Robbia and the frieze of saints Buglione, earthenware.Route B from the piazza del Duomo Pantheon of famous Italians
Piazza del Duomo
The structure of balanced and harmonious square is enhanced by the buildings that surround the heart of religious life and civil. Next to the complex of the cathedral, baptistery, bell tower and the Bishop's palace, on the square facing the ancient palace of the Commune and the Pretorio, ancient seat podestarile.
Duomo
the Crucifix by Coppo di Marcovaldo, the enthroned Madonna and two saints by Lorenzo di Credi, a painting by Mattia Preti. And how can we not stop and look 'Altar of San Jacopo, kept in the homonymous chapel and a format and an altar frontal. This superb work is a collaborative effort of master goldsmiths Siena, Florence and Pistoia, which worked from 1287 to 1450.
Battistero
Set between the palace and Pretorio old houses is the pearl of the Baptistery, a fourteenth-century Gothic building octagonal, fully coated with alternating bands of white marble and green, you want to built on a design by Andrea Pisano. Dedicated to St. John, the building owes its name to "court" to its location next to Lombard curtis domini directed, administrative and political center of the medieval city. Lost its liturgical function, the baptistery hosts cultural events.
Civic Museum
Set in the thirteenth century palace Town, the Museum has exhibited a significant exhibition of works of art belonging to various schools and perform many emerging artists, including Lorenzo di Credi, Francesco di Valdambrino, Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio and Anton Raphael Mengs.
Cathedral Museum
In front of the Museum, located in the fourteenth-century palace of the Bishops of the Cathedral Museum where you can admire the large Treasury, including fine works of jewelry, detached frescoes, statues, illuminated manuscripts and medieval vestments.
Do not miss the archaeological interests of the underground palace, traces of ancient guardians of the city. Among the finds of great archaeological interest can be observed a stele etrusca type Fiesole, a furnace and stretches of Roman wall of Pistoriae.
In Piazza del Duomo Ripa flows via del Sale, take a short visit to the Museum Diocesan.
Diocesan museum
Inside the palace late, already owned by the Rospigliosi family, built between the mid-sixteenth and early seventeenth century, today the place is the Museum of the Diocese of Pistoia. The new layout provides that, around a core of stable objects, they alternate the other, always different. The choice of the furniture falls on works that testify to a thorough and relevant several types of objects and their stylistic changes over the centuries. Among the pieces of rare and refined technique deserves mention the Cross in bronze manufacture of Limoges thirteenth century.
After returning to Piazza del Duomo, is the cross and then take away Bracciolini ending in the Presto. Going across to arrive in Piazza Santo Spirito.
Church of the Holy Spirit
The construction the church was ordered in the seventeenth century to accommodate the Jesuits. At the external front rows of irregular stones, devoid of any decoration, is an interior full of masterpieces, from the magnificent high altar in polychrome marble made from designs by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the large canvas with the Apparition of Christ to St. Peter's da Cortona. Among the artists who worked to beautify the church must be reminded also Andrea Pozzo, a Jesuit painter who painted St. Francis Xavier preaching to the infidels. Noteworthy is also the body of William Hermans, framed by a large wooden box carved and gilded.
Going back along Via de 'Rossi and Via Sant'Andrea, you can reach the church of St. Andrew from the square on which it is located takes its name.
Church of St. Andrew
This church, dating from the twelfth century, is very famous thanks the presence of a true jewel that preserves within it, the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano. This is one of the greatest masterpieces of Gothic sculpture, signed by the artist in 1301, as indicated by the Latin inscription engraved in the band that runs along the parapet. The hexagonal pulpit from the balcony was a mirror decorated with marble episodes of the New Testament, supported by pointed arches supported by columns of red marble, with bases alternately to die and figured.
Opposite the ancient church is Fabroni building, used as a venue and initiatives relevant to contemporary visual arts. Taking a walk in Via Sant'Andrea you end up in Piazza San Francesco.
Chiesa di San Francesco
Built between the thirteenth century and the fourteenth century, the church does not have a brick exterior homogeneous, since the facade has come to fruition only at the bottom, where it appears clad in bands of green and white marble.
This route ends walking along an avenue shaded by the canopy of trees that accompany us to the park of Villa Puccini reflecting the style of romantic to English parks, coastal buildings and statues in terracotta of which unfortunately very few traces remain. Those witnesses who remained, however, are sufficient to create of a particular effect. How catapulted into a frame of a landscape Ottocento start, you are immersed in a landscape that recalls nostalgically the greatness and magnificence of the past: hence the emergence of large artificial lake with the island temple of Pythagoras, a memory of greatness Archaic Greece. A little further away are the Gothic castle and the Pantheon, a small neoclassic building in which there were fourteen terracotta busts dedicated to many illustrious men.