Piazza Mercatale

Piazza Mercatale in Prato developed as a commercial space between the medieval walls and the Bisenzio River. Its history links the city's markets and wool trade with later housing, rebuilding and wartime damage.

Why it matters

Unlike a piazza centred on church or civic government, Mercatale was shaped by commerce. From the twelfth century it served as a market ground outside the river gate and hosted a September fair associated with the city's cloth trade. Its almond-shaped plan reflects the relationship among the walls, gate and bridge. The square preserves evidence of Prato's economic history in an open urban space.

What to notice

The square's outline is formed by the river walls, the former Porta Mercatale, the bridge over the Bisenzio and a closing eastern wall. The wool guild's tenter sheds, built in 1531 for stretching and finishing cloth, stood near its centre until their demolition in 1783. The eastern row of the Case Nuove includes planned popular housing with loggias that once sheltered workshops. The late-sixteenth-century Fontana del Maghero is another surviving feature. At the western corner, the Oratorio di Santa Margherita preserves an Annunciation painting from the first half of the fifteenth century. The square was seriously damaged by bombing in 1944, and a nearby church was rebuilt.

Context and history

Markets gathered in the broad meadow beside the Bisenzio from the twelfth century, and the space became the setting of Prato's September fair. In 1531 the wool guild built tenter sheds at its centre; their removal in 1783 altered the open space and exposed the eastern row of the Case Nuove. A tree-lined garden was laid out in 1926. Bombing in 1944 damaged the square and destroyed, among other works, a frescoed tabernacle at Canto alle Tre Gore painted by Filippino Lippi in honour of his mother, Lucrezia Buti. The painting was saved and is now held in the city museum. Later buildings filled gaps left by wartime destruction.