Piazza della Sala

The small widening is located not far from the Piazza del Duomo and is still among the most loved and appreciated places in the historic centre of Pistoia: every day there is a fruit and vegetable market and in the evening, the piazzetta, is a meeting point. Everything, however, revolves around the fifteenth-century Pozzo del Leoncino, restored after it had been hit in the bombing during the Second World War.

Going much further back in the centuries, it can be remembered that the word Sala does not refer to a comfortable indoor space: it was instead the name that indicated the land properties of the Lombards, who in fact had the organisational centre of their government on Pistoia here in the early Middle Ages. Today, nothing remains of that hall, while there are traces of pallets, counters and canopies for the workshops that have been set up here over the following centuries.

The streets around the square have an ancient layout, with façades to admire and names that recall the trades of yesteryear such as Stracceria, Via dei Fabbri or Via degli Orafi. At the edge is the Piazzetta degli Ortaggi, the authentic hub of the city's social life. Of the Jewish Ghetto alongside, however, only the entrance gates are preserved.