Piazza Mercatale is one of the most important squares in Prato, a place steeped in history and vitality. It was born as a vast meadow on the banks of the Bisenzio river, dating back to the 12th century and witness to the markets that were held there. Over time, it became the setting for the famous September Fair. Its perimeter, delineated by the walls along the river, the Mercatale gate and the bridge over the Bisenzio river, together with other sections of walls to the east, gave this square a singular almond shape, one of a kind.

The ancient buildings along the Mercatale housed humble homes and artisans' workshops. In 1531 the lifters of wool guilds were erected in the center of the square, then demolished in 1783 to create the New Houses on the eastern side, an eloquent example of popular housing from the second half of the seventeenth century. The tree-lined garden created in 1926 altered the appearance of the square, which suffered serious damage during the bombings of 1944.

Today the square hosts buildings with a late nineteenth and twentieth century character, preserving a few fragments of the original loggias, under which skilled craftsmen, especially coppersmiths, practiced their trade.

At the western corner stands the Oratory of Santa Margherita, a true jewel which houses an Annunciation from the first half of the fifteenth century. Not far away is the Canto alle Tre Gore, where the famous Tabernacle once resided, frescoed by Filippino Lippi in honor of his mother Lucrezia Buti, today preserved in the museum of Palazzo Pretorio (the original structure was destroyed by a bombing). Walking along the side opposite the river, you come across the Maghero Fountain, built at the end of the sixteenth century as a source of drinking water.

On the opposite side stands the Church of San Bartolomeo, completely rebuilt after the Second World War after the destruction caused by the bombings of 1944. Piazza Mercatale is a crossroads of history and tradition, a place where the past dialogues with the present, telling stories and secrets of a city with timeless charm.