Palazzo Pretorio

The Palazzo Pretorio in Montecatini Val di Cecina is one of the most important historic buildings in the village, overlooking the medieval Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi next to the parish church of San Biagio. Built in the fourteenth century and modified several times over the centuries, it features a portico on the front side with cross vaults and round arches resting on Ionic columns. Among its most notable preserved elements are the marble coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, topped by the royal crown with the arms of the Habsburg-Lorraine and Medici families, and a 1526 fresco of the Madonna and Child, by the Volterra painter Tommaso Palacchi, discovered on a wall in July 1866 and commonly known as the “Madonna of Milk”.

Until 1956, when the municipal offices moved to a more modern building, the palace served as the Town Hall; today it houses the Documentation Centre for Mining Activities in the Val di Cecina, part of the museum circuit linked to the ancient copper mine of Caporciano. In the square in front of it stands a public cistern built with selagite slabs, resting on three high steps that correct the slope of the ground, another reminder of how the medieval community shaped and organized its shared spaces.