Pratovecchio has been included in the National Park of the Forests of the Casetino , of which it is the main base. The lovers of art can visit its historical centre, the tabernacle in Borgo Mezzo with its Robbiana earthenware, the Camaldolese and the Dominican monasteries and the church of the Abbey in Poppiena dating to the XI century.

Pratovecchio is a centre of the Casentino in the province of Arezzo and it has about 3,000 inhabitants and represents one of the historical nuclei of the power of the Counts Guidi. They were feudatories of the empire and dominated the Casentino until the XV century. the origins of the village date to the Early Middle Ages, but the first certain information about it dates to 1191. it was mentioned in an imperial diploma by Henry IV where it was confirmed to be a feud of the Guidi's.
This document has always been considered very important historically because it lists the properties the Counts Guidi controlled for many centuries. Among them, there was also Pratovecchio, that was probably about one-hundred years old at the time, since it had developed around an ancient monastery of the X century. Different branches of the Guidi dynasty ruled this area until the XIV century. One of them, the Dovadola, ordered the construction of walls and ditches around the medieval village.
In 1367, the Guidi of Poppi bought the castle just at the acme of the battles against the superpower of the Florentine Guelfs. When the end of this fight was signed in the castle of Poppi in 1440, Pratovecchio and the whole Casentino were subjected to the Florentine Republic that became the Tuscan Grand Duchy some years later with a jurisdiction over most of the modern region. The town of Pratovecchio also was the native land of the Renaissance painter Paolo Uccello in 1397.
Florence also owned the woods that belonged to the Guidi and transformed Pratovecchio into a shunting centre of the timber directed to the chief town. The area assumed such an importance that the Lorraine, who were the successors of the Medici to the lead of the Grand Duchy, included the forests of the surroundings in their personal patrimony. The transport of timber took place through a way that led it to the Arno river, from where it was directed towards Pisa and Florence. Later, this town also developed an important resource in the textile sector.