Firenze	Prato	Pistoia	Lucca	Versilia
Pisa	Siena	Arezzo	Golf	Wellness

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Ceppo Hospital is one of the most representative institutions in Pistoia. It is where people have always found warmth and care and was founded in 1277 at the wish of a couple of merchants. Here, even during the most dramatic moments of the city’s long history, during plagues, wars or famine, religious men and laymen were dedicated to looking after the sick, the poor, orphans and pilgrims from all of those refuges that are represented so well in the frieze in the open gallery. Over the course of time, many benefactors have contributed to the development of this institute, which is well symbolised by the “ceppo”, a hollow section of tree trunk where the people used to collect offerings to maintain the structure in the Middle Ages.
From the seventeenth century, Ceppo Hospital also became the site of a prestigious medical- surgical school. Subsequently, the surgical orientation prevailed over the medical orientation and between 1770 and 1780 it became necessary to build a new anatomy room, designed as a true “anatomical theatre” which was to be used for practical and theory lessons following the example of other hospitals and universities.
The small room, which is situated in a building in the hospital garden, is an oval-shaped amphitheatre with an anatomical table made of marble in the centre and two rows of benches at the sides for students attending the lessons. The walls are decorated with frescoes and stucco work portraying geometric patterns spaced out by several medallions showing portraits of illustrious doctors. The school was finally suppressed in 1844 and the anatomy room was closed and almost forgotten about until recently, when this little architectural gem was returned to the city after pain-staking restoration work.
Ceppo Hospital has a special, valuable collection of surgical instruments dating back to between the 17th and 19th century, which are displayed in the “Filippo Pacini” Medical Academy Hall. Of these, the scalpels, surgical instruments “par excellence”, which seem to have been invented in Pistoia, are particularly important. Indeed, according to sources, Pistorienses gladii, in other words daggers with a short, double-edged blade and thin, sharp knives, also called “pistolesi” and “pistorini” respectively were made in the Middle Ages. The word “bisturino” derived from “pistorino”, as well as the French “bisturì”.
Again in the nineteenth century, Palmerini workshop, in central Via dei Fabbri was renowned and valued, abroad too, for manufacturing steel and surgical instruments, an activity that was preserved until 1886