Convento dell'Incontro

Built between 1716 and 1717 by order of San Leonardo da Porto Maurizio, reformed Franciscan, as a place of solitude and meditation for Franciscan friars, the Convento dell'Incontro overlooks Florence and the Valdarno area. In the past the dominant position of the hillock and its peacefulness had not gone unnoticed: if the Langobards had built a fortification there, unknown hermits built a hermitage dedicated to San Macario there. Indeed the convent was erected on that small chapel.

The appearance of the building remained basically unchanged until the last months of World War II. Even the German army appreciated the position of the hillock, that in the summer of 1944 became a strategic location in defence of the retreat of the German lines. On the first days of August the convent was therefore witness to the battle between the Germans and the British, which ended with the victory of the allies to the sound of machine guns and cannon shots on August 8 1944. The hills of Bagno a Ripoli were finally freed, but the Convento dell'Incontro was left in rubble.

Once World War II ended, the convent was rebuilt in what is to this day its present form, including what remains of the ancient Langobardic fortalice of yesteryear.