This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Also known as Isola Borghese, this is the biggest island in the Garda Lake.
A little more than 650 ft from Capo San Fermo, it divides the Gulf of Salò from the Emerald bay. To the south of the island, there is a chain of rocks and shallow waters eventually reaching the islet of San Biagio, also known as Isola dei Conigli.

Near the island, there’s the Altar Rock, so-called because it is said that a mass was once celebrated there, attended by all the local fishermen.

The island, which until 879 was a hunting reserve, became a property of Charlemagne who later gave it to some monks. In 1221, Saint Francis from Assisi, while returning from a trip to the East, visited it and chose this very island as the ideal place for a congregation of friars. Thanks to his charisma, he talked the owner Biemino da Manerba into giving him the rocky area of the northern part of the island, where he then built a small hermitage.

In 1429, Saint Bernardino from Siena, as vicar general of the Franciscan order, had the hermitage transformed into a real monastery, started a project for the church, the cloister, the cells and the gardens. However, the death of Father Francesco marked the beginning of the decline of the religious community on the island.

After becoming the property of the state, the island changed many other owners and in 1817 Luigi Lechi from Brescia took possession of it; he had a residence built on the ruins of the monastery. The new owner also carried out important restoration and construction works, including the marina, designed in 1830 by architect Rodolfo Vantini.

In 1860, the island was expropriated by the state to build a military fortress, but the project was later abandoned. In 1870, the island came into the hands of Duke Gaetano de Ferrari from Genoa. He and his wife, the Russian archduchess Maria Annenkoff, dedicated themselves to the design and construction of the park; they also built the retaining walls towards the lake and had some fertile land for native essences brought on the island.
Before the duke’s death in 1893, they also conceived the project of a luxurious palace to be built in place of the old Lechi’s house.
The villa, featuring neo-Gothic-Venetian style reminiscent of the Doge’s Palace in Venice, was eventually built between 1894 and 1901 by the architect Luigi Rovelli from Genoa.

The new palace was enriched by terraces arranged in an Italian garden, with elaborate hedges and flowering bushes.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)