Prato is city of art and history. The Emperor’s Castle is the only example of Swabian architecture in Northern-Central Italy.
The Cathedral, with the superb frescoes by Filippo Lippi and Agnolo Gaddi, houses the venerated relic of the Virgin Sacred Belt. On the façade is the pulpit by Donatello e Michelozzo, used several times during the year for the display of the relic and in particular on 8th September (Virgin’s birth) that the city celebrate with a magnificent medieval commemoration, the Historical Parade.
Palazzo Pretorio, imposing medieval structure, hosts the homonymous museum which houses the works by Bernardo Daddi, Giovanni da Milano, Donatello, Filippo and Filippino Lippi, the big altarpices by Santi di Tito and Alessandro Allori, the collection of plaster casts by Lorenzo Bartolini and the works of art by Jaques Lipchitz.
n the city centre are many other monuments among which stands the Renaissance jewel of the Basilica di S. Maria delle Carceri by Giuliano da Sangallo, Palazzo Datini.
In the Cathedral Museum are paintings by great masters of the fourteenth century and of the Renaissance as a wonderful crucifix by Botticelli.