Palazzo Pretorio - Figline

The building was erected at the end of the 13th century in a prime location: at the time it directly overlooked the market square and served as the palace of the podestà, thus being the headquarters of the representative who was in charge of governing the city and the other towns of the Valdarno area gathered in the Figline League. It was only in the mid-18th century that its name changed to Pretorio.

Reworked several times, it was turned into a prison between 1866 and 1867. The penitentiary activity then ended in 1924 and, soon after, the Palace underwent restoration works by the architect Ezio Cerpi, which resulted in the current appearance.

Until 1963 it was back to being the headquarters of the institutional bodies and the administrative system. Today it hosts the pre-unity municipal archive, with documents from 1365 to 1865.

Located at the entrance of Palazzo Pretorio are: the bell detached from the Guelph tower, whose history was to serve as a warning and a deterrent against the Ghibellines, and the Palio di San Rocco banner painted by Lorenzo Bonechi in 1994. Kept on the first floor, in the room used as a conference and ceremony hall, is the oil on canvas by another painter from Figline, Egisto Sarri, portraying Alessandro de' Medici trying to kidnap a nun.
The peculiarity of the Guelph tower in Figline is that, due to a collapse of the clay floor, it is noticeably tilted.
At its foot lies the wonderful chapel dedicated to the fallen of the great war, inside of which stands a terracotta altarpiece of the Della Robbia school, dating to 1515-1520, attributed to Benedetto Buglioni and portraying the Madonna with Child and Saints Sebastian and Anthony Abbot.