The town of San Marcello Pistoiese is in the province of Pistoia, at 625 m. of altitude and it has a population of about 7,000 inhabitants. The oratory of Santa Caterina and the Parish of San Marcello can be visited here.

Its first settlement was born in the Roman times, as the finding of one ancient sepulchral area shows. Yet, historic documents evidence the existence of San Marcello since 1191, only, when a bull by Henry VI confirmed its cession as a feud to the Count Guido Guerra. The lineage of the Guidi continued to rule also later. Two imperial acts issued by Frederick II dating to the first half of the XIII century, we learn that the village was already defined as a fortified "corte".
At the end of the XIII century, San Marcello became a free city-state by playing host to a group of Ghibellines from Pistoia led by Arrigo Tredici. In 1323, the town gave hospitality to and supported the militia of Castruccio Castracani, lord of Lucca. Yet, Pistoia could establish its presence again in the territory.
After the end of the civil war between Cancellieri and Panciatichi, San Marcello became the seat of the Capitanato della Montagna together with Cutigliano as Pistoia settled in 1368 to tame the volatility of the area and defend its borders from Lucca.
The Cancellieri who had been defeated started to fight again in 1400 with the endorsement of the Visconti's troops from Milan, but, after Pistoia submitted to Florence, the Republic defeated them and incorporated the whole countryside of Pistoia into its borders, including San Marcello. Since then, the town followed the fate of Pistoia and entered the Tuscan Grand Duchy after the Spanish came to Italy to help the Medici and killed the republican commissioner Francesco Ferrucci just in the hamlet of Gavinia.