Museum of San Salvatore

One of the oldest churches in Pistoia, which has been known since the 10th century, after two centuries of abandonment opens its doors again revealing an unexpected story: it is San Salvatore , which from 24 September 2022 will become an exhibition venue - the fourth after Palazzo Buontalenti, Palazzo de' Rossi and Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi - with which Pistoia Musei is completing its important and challenging museum system project in the heart of Pistoia. Way back in 1784, Bishop Scipione de' Ricci chose to suppress the parish of San Salvatore, which was then closed to worship in 1807. Thus began a decline for the church which was only arrested thanks to its recovery by the Caript Foundation .

In agreement with the Cathedral Church of Pistoia, owner of the property, it is reborn today as a museum that offers a journey into the history of the oldest part of the city through the exhibition of works previously preserved in the deposits of the Civic Museums - such as the amphora of property of the Municipality of Pistoia dated between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, kindly granted on loan for use, and others owned by the state - as well as new and unexpected discoveries that accompany the public through incredible narratives.

The meticulous restoration work and excavations have brought to light the remains of the most ancient phases of the church and highlighted pre-existing Roman and early medieval structures. Part of the foundation pit of the first city wall from the Lombard period (8th century AD) has also been traced.

New light is shed on the end of Catiline : according to legend, the defeated Roman conspirator on the Pistoia Apennines was buried at the foot of the church's tabernacle and, today, archaeological excavations tell us what was found precisely in the point that belief dictates .

But among the most extraordinary discoveries, mention must be made of an incomplete fresco, which the art historian Giacomo Guazzini has recently studied in depth: the Lamentation over the Dead Christ , datable to the end of the thirteenth century and attributed to the circle of Lippo di Benivieni, an important painter documented in Florence between 1296 and 1320. Moving figures, characters with incisive and scratchy features, illusionistic devices: around the remains of this fresco brought to light by the restoration, a story develops capable of encouraging the visitor to explore through images of one of the most evocative themes in Tuscan painting of the time.

Buried like a treasure, in a terracotta vase , fragments of fabric and sponge, coins, ash and a very small ivory cube were found. Only thanks to sophisticated analyzes and historical sources, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct a practice that dates back, in all probability, to a rededication rite celebrated in 1580 .