Palazzo degli Anziani, Pistoia

[2] In 1295, while Giano della Bella was potestà of Pistoia, it was decided to build a residence for the magistrates or elders of the city.

In the present spot near the Pistoia Cathedral, land and houses were purchased from a number of families: Bellanti, Lazzari, Cremonesi, and others.

Supposedly the marble bust that was posted to the right of the central facade window on the piano nobile, represents the infamous Filippo Tedici, considered the traitor of Pistoia for having sold the town to the Lucchese condotierre Castruccio Castracani.

[4] Others think the bust and keys refer to someone of the Grandoni family who once confronted Pisa; the head was putatively in place prior to 1345.

The Palazzo was the home to the meetings of the Pistoian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts from its foundation in 1803 until 1811, when the Napoleonic authorities granted them the suppressed convent of Santa Maria del Carmine of Pistoia.