One of the oldest churches in Pistoia, dating back to the 10th century, after two centuries of abandonment reopens its doors revealing an unexpected story: it is San Salvatore, which as of September 24, 2022 becomes an exhibition venue - the fourth after Palazzo Buontalenti, Palazzo de’ Rossi, and Antico Palazzo dei Vescovi - with which Pistoia Musei completes its important and challenging museum system project in the heart of Pistoia. In 1784, Bishop Scipione de’ Ricci chose to suppress the parish of San Salvatore, which was then closed for worship in 1807. Thus began a decline for the church, only halted thanks to the recovery by Fondazione Caript.

In agreement with the Cathedral Church of Pistoia, the owner of the property, it reopens today as a museum that offers a journey through the history of the city's oldest nucleus by exhibiting works previously stored in the Civic Museums' deposits - such as the amphora owned by the Municipality of Pistoia dating between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century AD, kindly loaned, and others owned by the state - along with new and unexpected discoveries that guide the public through incredible narratives.

The meticulous restoration work and excavations have brought to light the remains of the church's oldest phases, highlighting Roman and early medieval pre-existences. Part of the foundation ditch of the first Longobard-era city walls (8th century AD) has also been traced.

New light is shed on the end of Catiline: according to legend, the defeated Roman conspirator on the Apennines of Pistoia was buried at the foot of the church's tabernacle, and today, archaeological excavations tell us what was found right at the point where tradition claims.

Among the most extraordinary discoveries is the incomplete fresco, which art historian Giacomo Guazzini has recently studied in depth: the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, dating back to the late 13th century and attributed to the circle of Lippo di Benivieni, an important painter documented in Florence between 1296 and 1320. Moving figures, characters with sharp and incisive features, illusionistic devices: around the remains of this fresco brought to light by restoration, a narrative unfolds capable of prompting the visitor to visually explore one of the most evocative themes in Tuscan painting of the time.

Buried like a treasure in a terracotta vase, fragments of fabric and sponge, coins, ashes, and a tiny ivory die were found. Only through sophisticated analysis and historical sources, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct a practice that most likely dates back to a reconsecration ritual celebrated in 1580.