Record-breaking Pistoia: trivia and visit ideas

The little theater Teatrino Gatteschi, dated 1707, is a true Baroque jewel hidden in the center of Pistoia, inside the ancient Palace Gatteschi, the historic residence of the family of the same name.

With its 70 square meters, divided on two floors, it is one of the smallest theaters in the world. It can accommodate up to 15 people at a time. Its architectural inventions, stucco decorations and trompe-l’œil frescoes make it a magical place not to be missed.

Since July 2021, it has been open to the public within the Puccini Gatteschi Cultural Center and hosts concerts, performances and other events.

Within the tour of the Museum of the Spedale del Ceppo you can discover the anatomical little theater. A testimony to the Pistoia medical-surgical school and one of the world’s smallest examples of its kind. Anatomy lessons on cadavers were held here from 1666 to 1844. The little theater consists of two small rooms, one of which keeps the anatomical table in the center, surrounded by semicircular benches, dedicated to the audience, consisting of no more than 15 students per lecture.

The museum presents, in the former men’s ward of San Jacopo, an extensive section on the history of Pistoia’s healthcare, through specific insights devoted to the rich collection of surgical instruments, dating from the 18th century to the early decades of the 20th century.

Among the many editions of Dante’s poem owned by the Forteguerriana Library in Pistoia, we find a particularly curious 19th-century one. On a single 71x50 cm sheet is reproduced the entire Divine Comedy, set out in three rectangles of 69-column, each containing the three cantiche: 14,233 verses, 96,000 words and 400,000 letters. The whole, indistinguishable to the naked eye, is enclosed within a classically shaped architectural frame bearing Dante’s portrait.

This colossal feat was accomplished by the publisher Cossovel in the late 19th century, a period during which micrograph and microscopic editions were particularly popular among bibliophiles. The Forteguerriana’s piece was purchased in 1965, Dante’s year, by then-library director Giancarlo Savino, and it is still possible today to request it for consultation, both for study and to admire its uniqueness.

It celebrated 40 years in 2021, the Pistoia Blues Festival, one of Italy’s longest-running festivals, listed among the country’s top international music events.

Since 1980, Italian and international artists have enlivened the festival’s evenings in July. Countless musicians and absolute legends of music have taken turns on its stage, such as Carlos Santana, B.B. King, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Patty Smith and Lue Reed.

Once again this year, Piazza del Duomo is preparing to welcome great music.

Floriculture is one of the most important sectors of the economy of Pistoia and its province.

The availability of water and the favorable climate, mitigated by the presence of the Apennines that shields the coldest winds, have allowed this area to become one of the best known in the world in the field of floriculture, predominantly ornamental.

There are about two thousand companies, most of them family-owned, producing plants for public and private green areas, exporting more than half of their production worldwide.

On the Pistoia Mountains, in the municipality of San Marcello Piteglio, the Ferriere Suspension Bridge, inaugurated in 1923, was until 2006 the longest Tibetan bridge in the world according to the Guiness World Record. It connects with its 227 meters the two sides of the Lima stream, between Mammiano Basso and Popiglio, in the municipality of San Marcello Piteglio.

Built following the idea of Vincenzo Douglas Scotti, the link allowed the passage of workers who, from Popiglio, had to go to work in the factories of S.M.I. - Società Metallurgica Italiana (Italian Metallurgical Society), located on the opposite side.

The work, which today has lost its original function, is one of the area’s tourist attractions and remains a great example of engineering.