Sanctuary of Ponticelli

The sanctuary of Ponticelli is an ancient place of worship dedicated to Saint Anna and built between the 16th and 17th centuries, near a source considered miraculous for women in labor. Over the centuries, the sanctuary became a destination for pilgrimages also thanks to Pope Clement XIV who granted plenary indulgence to those who visit the sanctuary.

A place of worship and devotion to the Virgin Mary, the construction of Ponticelli dates back to the 16th-17th century. The shape known today is given by a series of restorations and renovations, the toponym Ponticelli is registered in the Florentine Land Registry of 1427.
During the 16th century the people of Valdarno, having escaped a plague, went there to thank the Virgin by bringing their votive offerings. Ponticelli's oratory belonged to the churches of San Niccolò in Forli and San Donato in Menzano (plover of Scò) whose curates were alternately responsible for satisfying their needs. The oldest document found in the Bishop's Archive of Fiesole concerns a pastoral visit by Bishop Lorenzo della Robbia (11 May 1638) where it is noted that there are no tablecloths on the altar. On 3 October 1646, Bishop Roberto Strozzi visited it. In recent years, Ponticelli became an important pious place in the diocese of Fiesole; The disposition of the Capitular Vicar Matteo Strozzi to send 'two revelers' from the oratory throughout the diocese to ask for and receive alms to complete 'the new factory' dates back to March 1674.
In 1680 Filippo Neri Altoviti promulgated new buildings for the oratory and its Opera. From an inventory of 1682 we learn that the Chapters given by the bishop of Fiesole are preserved in the church.
On 15 February 1770, Ponticelli was sealed as a devotional place with a papal bull and the granting of plenary indulgence by Clement XIV. Parallel to that for the Virgin, the devotion to St. Anna developed in Ponticelli, to whose devotion the women giving birth relied. The altar to the left of the entrance was dedicated to her, where there was a painting depicting her (Inv. 1638).
Over the years, Ponticelli also took on the connotation of a hermitage; already in 1743 two hermits were buried in the church (Pastoral visit 9 August 1743). The buildings next to the place of worship were originally intended for hermits and to welcome pilgrims who moved along the pass roads between Valdarno and Casentino. Since 1680, the refectory, kitchen and cellar belonged to the Opera di Santa Maria a Ponticelli which had the task of maintaining the building and providing for the expenses of worship.
New statutes were given in 1910 by bishop Giovanni Fossà; the current ones were approved by Luciano Giovannetti. The building has a single nave of modest dimensions made of local sandstone; the presbytery area is raised by a step and delimited by two columns; from this you can access the sacristy through two side doors to the central altar. Inside there are two altars in pietra serena, the central altar and the altar of S. Anna to the left of the entrance. Above the central altar there is a fresco depicting the Madonna with Child in the background of the Sanctuary of Ponticelli, inside a molded pietra serena frame in seventeenth-century style; the work, rather ruined, has undergone several stages of retouching, especially in the area of the Virgin's face. On the altar of S. Anna there is a recently created table. The entire architectural complex has been restored since 1979; a portico (1979) and the rooms of the hermitage are attached to the building of the church on the right side: large ground room, kitchen and two upper rooms.

Source: tuscany.name/CORNUCOPIA/chiese2/regg/ponticel.htm