The town of Quarrata in the province of Pistoia is divided between a hilly area near Mount Albano and one flatter area along the Ombrone Valley. It has a population of about 23,500 inhabitants and the famous Villa La Magia and the church of Santa Maria can be admired here.

The flat area crossed by the river Obrone was scarcely inhabited in the ancient times because of the continuous menaces of floods and inundations. The first Liguri and Etruscan villages were probably set at the foot of Mount Albano. A population increase happened with the arrival of the Romans who traced the Cassia way to link the conquered cities and the settlements in Tuscany. They also carried out both reclamations along the stream banks and the centuriation of cultivable lands.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, the population took refuge on the safer hills, thus causing the paludification of this level area. The Lombards founded new settlements between the VI and the VIII century. The first political organizations depended upon Christian parishes, while the presence of the new German Empire revealed itself in the birth of the great feudatories dynasties and of their fortifications. The fortress of the Quarrata that belonged to a family vassal of the Guidi or of the Cadolingi, was documented since 998.
Since the XIV century, the nearby castles of Quarrata and Tizzana united to Pistoia. At this time, the intensification of agriculture led the Florentine family of the Strozzi to invest their capitals here. the Republic's interest took shape in 1329 when one of Tizzana's territories was bought as reparations after Pistoia had been defeated. Pistoia's further weakening happened for the cholera plague at the half of the century, which also hit Quarrata.
In 1402, yet, Quarrata's flourishing economy contributed to the town's recovery and it joined Buriano to create a free autonomous town. The leading Republic of Florence divided the territory into five town halls that were later reduced to three: Montale, Serravalle-Larciano and Tizzana, where Quarrata was included. With the territorial reorganization carried out by Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine at the end of the XVIII century, Tizzana later became an autonomous "comunitas".
Yet, by the end of the XIX century, Quarrata had already become the richest and most developed town of all and, when it was already part of the Kingdom of Italy, it succeeded into becoming the new municipal seat. Yet, it took its modern name in 1959.