"I look out of the window, and leaning a little to one side, I see in front of me the marble facade of the Cathedral, with its white and green stripes, the Pulpit by Michelozzo and Donatello, hanging like a nest in the corner of the facade, and the beautiful bell tower that served as a model for Giotto's bell tower, but simpler, leaner and more straightforward than that one: made with cut stone, with good, smooth Prato stone." (from "Those Cursed Tuscans"). As Curzio Malaparte, the illustrious citizen of Prato, reminds us, Piazza del Duomo, organized as we still see it today around the Cathedral of Santo Stefano, is one of the most significant urban spaces in the city. The Piazza has been a place of worship since ancient times, as attested by finds, made in 1975, which date to a period at the turn of the Copper and Bronze Ages.
The Piazza is the heart of Prato's Historical Pageant, a civil and at the same time religious festival that celebrates the Prato Fair, a medieval tradition.
Five times a year, the ostension from Donatello's pulpit of a Holy Relic, brought from the Holy Land in 1140, and of the Holy Girdle, a gold embossed belt that belonged to the Virgin Mary, attracts great numbers of the local population. The regeneration project aims to rearrange the public lighting in the square to remedy some lighting deficiencies, and enhance the place and its architecture. Given its function as a meeting place, the Square is constantly being maintained and renovated. In addition to lighting, the current project is concentrating on the restoration of the worn paving and the provision of an Urban Pedestrian Area with the rest benches.