Description
The Walls of Pistoia are the three rings that, over the Middle Ages, first enclosed and then enlarged the city: the oldest survives as traces in the layout of the streets, the last, from the 14th century, in several stretches along the avenues that ring the centre.
The most visible stretch belongs to the third ring, along Viale Matteotti and Viale Arcadia. These walls were about fifteen metres high, three metres thick at the base and a metre and a half at the top, where the sentry walk ran.
Along the circuit you come across the great bastions added in the 15th and 16th centuries to defend the gates: the Ambrogi towards Lucca, the Thyrion at Porta al Borgo, the Sandraccia at Porta San Marco. The strongest stronghold was the Fortezza di Santa Barbara, next to Porta Carratica.
The four gates faced the main roads: to Florence, to Lucca, to the mountains and to Prato. Their names live on in the four districts that compete in the Giostra dell'Orso, the Bear Joust.
The first ring was built by the Lombards, on the orders of King Desiderius, on the remains of the Roman one: it enclosed just under nine hectares around today's Piazza del Duomo. The second, from the 12th century, had sixty towers and wide moats fed by the streams.
The gates closed at sunset, at the sound of a bell from the cathedral. Latecomers had to make themselves heard, perhaps by throwing stones at the doors: hence the saying "essere alla porta coi sassi", to be at the gate with the stones, which is still in common use.
The third ring was raised after 1306, when the Florentines had destroyed the previous one. Surrounded by moats fed by the Brana and the Ombrone, it was never taken.
It was modernity that defeated it. In 1909 the customs boundary was abolished, and the gates, now seen as cumbersome ruins, were torn down one after another between 1910 and 1925.
The most visible stretch belongs to the third ring, along Viale Matteotti and Viale Arcadia. These walls were about fifteen metres high, three metres thick at the base and a metre and a half at the top, where the sentry walk ran.
Along the circuit you come across the great bastions added in the 15th and 16th centuries to defend the gates: the Ambrogi towards Lucca, the Thyrion at Porta al Borgo, the Sandraccia at Porta San Marco. The strongest stronghold was the Fortezza di Santa Barbara, next to Porta Carratica.
The four gates faced the main roads: to Florence, to Lucca, to the mountains and to Prato. Their names live on in the four districts that compete in the Giostra dell'Orso, the Bear Joust.
The first ring was built by the Lombards, on the orders of King Desiderius, on the remains of the Roman one: it enclosed just under nine hectares around today's Piazza del Duomo. The second, from the 12th century, had sixty towers and wide moats fed by the streams.
The gates closed at sunset, at the sound of a bell from the cathedral. Latecomers had to make themselves heard, perhaps by throwing stones at the doors: hence the saying "essere alla porta coi sassi", to be at the gate with the stones, which is still in common use.
The third ring was raised after 1306, when the Florentines had destroyed the previous one. Surrounded by moats fed by the Brana and the Ombrone, it was never taken.
It was modernity that defeated it. In 1909 the customs boundary was abolished, and the gates, now seen as cumbersome ruins, were torn down one after another between 1910 and 1925.