Museo Civico di Palazzo Pretorio

Prato's Civic Museum of Palazzo Pretorio brings together medieval and Renaissance art, civic history and modern collections inside the city's former seat of justice.

Why it matters

For centuries the palace housed magistrates who governed Prato, and their painted coats of arms remain on its facade and interiors. Its conversion into a civic museum joined the building's judicial history with the city's collections of painting and sculpture.

What to notice

The medieval tribunal hall preserves painted ceilings and polyptychs by Giovanni da Milano, Pietro di Miniato and Lorenzo Monaco. Works include Filippo Lippi's Madonna del Ceppo and a tabernacle by Filippino Lippi, alongside sculpture associated with Donatello's circle and glazed terracottas by the della Robbia workshop. Later collections include works by Bartolini, Soffici, Lipchitz, Klein and Pistoletto.

Context and history

A document of 1284 records the palace's early history as a tower-house. Florentine crews enlarged it between 1334 and 1338, and later additions included a clock gable from 1534. Prato's civic collection developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Galleria Comunale opened in the palace in 1912; after periods of closure and restoration, the museum reopened in 2014 with recovered frescoed ceilings and new acquisitions.