Palazzo Bocchineri o Gatti

Palazzo Gatti stands in the historic centre of Prato, a short walk from the Novellucci Palace. Built early in the 17th century on foundations from the 15th, it was once home to the Bocchineri family. Around 1760 the family remodelled several houses into a single grand residence. In the 19th century the palace passed to the Pazzi of Florence, who left their mark on its design. The graceful Baroque shapes end in a small rooftop loggia, and a frieze of masks and scrolls runs beneath the main cornice. The building is now the headquarters of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Prato. Its façade shows the careful work of 18th-century craftsmen who shaped stone and plaster into elegant curves. The roofline loggia offers a quiet place to look over the old town’s tiled roofs. Inside, the rooms still preserve the proportions and details of the unified palace created by the Bocchineri. Visitors walk past the frieze of grinning masks and scrolling foliage that crowns the building. The small loggia at the top gives a clear view of nearby towers and domes. The street itself, Via Cairoli, is lined with other historic buildings, making it easy to imagine the life of the city across the centuries.