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 | Prato Downtown car rental - Travel Guide |  |
Taking its name from the meadow ( prato ) where a great market was held in antiquity, PRATO - capital of its own little province 15km northwest of Florence - has been Italy's chief textile city since the early Middle Ages. Even though recent recession has cut into export sales, it still produces three-quarters of all Italy's woollen cloth. Its proximity to Florence (just half-an-hour away) makes it feasible as a cut-price alternative base.
Prato's centro storico is enclosed within a rough hexagon of walls, making orientation straightforward. From the square in front of Stazione Centrale, cross the bridge to Piazza Europa and continue on Viale Vittorio Veneto to Piazza San Marco, which is framed by the city walls. Directly ahead, past the prominent Henry Moore sculpture Square Form with Cut (1974) in the centre of the piazza, rises the white-walled Castello Imperatore (under restoration at the time of writing), built in the thirteenth century for Emperor Frederick II. Concerts are held in the courtyard in summer, and the ramparts offer fine views. Just below the castle to the north is Prato's major Renaissance monument, Giuliano Sangallo's church of Santa Maria delle Carceri (daily 7am-noon & 4-7pm), which makes a decorative gesture towards the Romanesque with its bands of green and white marble. The interior is lightened by an Andrea della Robbia frieze. The route to the duomo passes through Piazza del Comune, home to the Museo Civico e Galleria Comunale (under restoration at the time of writing; most of the paintings have been removed to the Museo di Pittura Murale), which contains a ramshackle collection of Florentine art, including work by Fra' Filippo Lippi and a predella by Bernardo Daddi narrating the story of Prato's holy relic, the Girdle of the Madonna .
Piazza Duomo, one block north of Piazza del Comune, forms an effective space for the Pisan-Romanesque facade of the Duomo (daily 7am-12.30pm & 3-6.30pm, Sun until 8pm), distinguished by an Andrea della Robbia terracotta over the portal and, on the corner, a strange and beautiful external pulpit designed by Donatello and Michelozzo. The sensuous frescoes behind the high altar were created between 1452 and 1466 by Fra' Filippo Lippi , and depict the martyrdoms of St John the Baptist and St Stephen. During the period of his work, Lippi - though nominally a monk - became infatuated with a young nun called Lucrezia; they later had a child together, Filippino. Lucrezia is said to be the model for the dancing figure of Salome, while Filippo has painted himself as one of those mourning St Stephen; he's third from the right. To see the heavily corroded original panels of Donatello's pulpit, look in at the adjacent Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (under restoration at the time of writing). The museum's other main treasure is Maso di Bartolomeo's tiny reliquary for the Sacred Girdle, while some equally important works are housed in the Museo di Pittura Murale (Mon & Wed-Sun 10am-1pm & 3.30-7pm; L5000/?2.58), a five-minute walk west of the duomo.
The Museo d'Arte Contemporaneo Luigi Pecci is one of Italy's leading museums of contemporary art, housed in striking premises designed by Italo Gamberini on the eastern edge of town at Viale della Repubblica 277 (Mon & Wed-Sun 10am-7pm; permanent collection free; special exhibitions around L12,000/?6.20; www.comune.prato.it/pecci ; bus #7 or #8). Along with work by Italian artists such as Marco Bagnoli and Michelangelo Pistoletto, there is plenty to see by international big names, including Sol LeWitt, Anish Kapoor and the huge, glittering Colonna cadente sculpture in steel by Anne and Patrick Poirier.
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