PISTOIA or PISTOJA, a town and episcopal see of Tus cany, Italy, in the province of Florence, from which it is 21 m. N.W. by rail on the main line to Bologna, with a branch to Lucca. Pop. (1931) 16,687 (town) ; 70,397 (commune). It is situated on a slight eminence (210 ft.) near the Ombrone, one of the tributaries of the Arno, immediately below the Apennines.
It is on the site of the Roman Pistoriae, near which in 62 B.C. Catiline was slain and his forces destroyed. Excavations in the Piazza del Duomo led to the discovery of a large private house (end of 1st century B.C.). During the middle ages Pistoia was the scene of constant conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibel lines; here the great struggle took place which resulted in the creation of the Bianchi and Neri factions (Dante, Inferno, xxiv. 121). In 1302-06 it was besieged and eventually taken by the armies of Florence and Lucca, and in 1325 it became subject to Castruccio of Lucca. In 1351 it was obliged to surrender to Florence, and thenceforth shared its fate.
The city is still surrounded by walls, dating from shortly after the siege of 1302-06; while two inner lines of streets represent two earlier and inner lines of wall. A number of skilful artists between 1287 and 1399, made the great silver altar and frontal of the cathedral now in a chapel on the south side. The cathedral (13th century) has a campanile (218 ft. high) porch and facade with small arcades in black and white marble in the Pisan style as in other churches of Pistoia. It contains many fine sculptures— the monument of Cino da Pistoia, lawyer and poet, Dante's contemporary (1337), by Cellino di Nese, surrounded by his scholars, and Verrocchio's monument to Cardinal Forteguerra (1474). The octagonal baptistery is by Cellino (c. 1337). Among the earlier churches the principal is Sant' Andrea (1166), enriched with sculpture; in the nave is Giovanni Pisano's magnificent pul pit, imitated from his father's pulpit at Pisa. Other churches are
S. Giovanni Fuorcivitas (so called because it was outside the line of the earliest, pentagonal, enceinte of the middle ages), with one of the long sides elaborately adorned with small arcades in the Pisan style, in black and white marble, also with sculpture by Gruamons (1162) on the facade. Within are a beautiful group of the Visitation by Andrea della Robbia, and a fine pulpit by Fra Guglielmo of Pisa (1270). S. Bartolomeo in Pantano and S. Pietro Maggiore closely resemble it. San Francesco al Prato is a fine church of the end of the 13th century with interesting frescoes of the school of Giotto. San Domenico, a noble church, begun in 1294, contains the beautiful tomb of Filippo Lazari by Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino (1462-67) and other works of art. The Madonna dell' Umilita (1494-1567) and S. Maria delle Grazie have fine Renaissance interiors, by the local architect Ventura Vitoni. The Palazzo del Comune and the Palazzo Pretorio, once the residence of the podesta, are both fine specimens of 14th century architecture. The Ospedale del Ceppo has remarkable reliefs in enamelled and coloured terra-cotta on its exterior. Be sides various medallions, there is a frieze of figures in high relief along the whole front—groups representing the Seven Works of Mercy—executed by Andrea Della Robbia between 1514 and 1525.
The word "pistol" is derived (apparently through pistolese, a dagger—dagger and pistol being both small arms) from Pistoia, where that weapon was largely manufactured in the middle ages.