Isola del Garda, Isola di Garda, or Isola Borghese is the biggest island on Lake Garda. It is part of the comune of San Felice del Benaco, in the Province of Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. The island has a long and varied history, having been used as a Roman burial ground, pirate lair, a site for a Franciscan monastery, border fortification and as a residential villa. The island has been visited by numerous famous people over the centuries, reportedly including Francis of Assisi, Anthony of Padua and Dante Alighieri. Today, it is covered by a park and is dominated by the Venetian neo-GothicVilla Borghese Cavazza. Although privately owned by the Cavazza family, Isola del Garda has been open to visitors since 2002.
Isola del Garda is located in the southwest of Lake Garda, just south of the Gulf of Salò, close to the town of San Felice del Benaco, in Brescia province. It is separated from Capo San Fermo by only about 220 meters of open water. It is by far the largest island on the lake. The island (or actually islands, since Isola del Garda includes some small outcroppings of rock and most of the park is divided from the house by a narrow channel) was initially just rocks jutting out from the lake. All the soil for the gardens was brought in over time by the inhabitants. The island is around 1.1km (0.7mi) long, but only around 70 metres (230 feet) wide at the widest point. It is now mostly covered by a park and formal gardens with a large variety of plants.
History
The quay and leaning tower stump, built in the early 19th century, with the Rocca di Manerba in the background.
The island has been known in turn as Insula Cranie ("Isle of Skulls"), Isola dei Frati ("Isle of Monks"), Isola Scotti, Isola Lechi, Isola de Ferrari and Isola Borghese.[1][2] It has likely been inhabited since the Roman period. 130 Gallo-Roman tombstones found on the island indicate that it was at least used as a burial area at the time.[3] Remains of votive temples have also been discovered. Reportedly, after having been abandoned during the period of decline of the Roman Empire, the island served for a long time as a hideout for pirates who preyed on the shipping on Lake Garda.
The island is first mentioned in written documents in a decree by Duke Carloman of Bavaria, dated 879, which granted the island to the monks of Zeno of Verona.[3] Apparently, they did not hold on to the property because in 1180 it was mentioned again when Emperor Frederick I granted it as a fief to one Biemino of Manerba.[4] Around 1220, Francis of Assisi travelled through northern Italy. Although it is not certain whether he actually visited the island, the Franciscans did establish a simple hermitage among the caves and rocks of the island at that time, after it was bestowed on them by Biemino. In 1224, the Bishop of Trent visited the hermitage and three years later so did reportedly Anthony of Padua in 1227.[4] According to local legend, in 1304, Dante Alighieri came to the island and later referred to it in his Divine Comedy as:[5]
Loco è nel mezzo là dove 'l trentino pastore e quel di Brescia e 'l veronese segnar poria, s'e' fesse quel cammino (Inferno, Canto XX)
In 1422, Bernardino of Siena was on the island for the first of several visits and in that period a Franciscan convent was constructed.[4] It was rebuilt and expanded in 1438, the added church was named Santa Maria dello Scoglio.[4] In 1470, Father Francesco Licheto (1450–1520), a member of the noble Lechi family from Brescia, founded a school of theology and philosophy on the island. In 1517, a religious commentary he wrote was printed for him by Paganino Paganini on the island, and became the first printed book to be published in the whole region around Lake Garda.[3][4]Giano Fregoso, Doge of Genua, and his son Alessandro used the island as a retreat.[4] However, after Licheto's death the religious community there went into decline. From 1685 to 1697 it was a convent for novices.
In 1795, the government of the Republic of Venice decided to suppress the monastery. Its last head, Bonaventura di Casalloro, was forced to close the monastery and leave the island with the remaining monks. The property was then requisitioned by a decree of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, after the establishment of the Cisalpine Republic. Its government sold the island to private owners in 1800. After passing through several hands, it was bought in 1817 by Count Luigi Lechi from Brescia. He ordered major construction and renovation works and the monastery was turned into a villa. Lechi was also a poet and among his guests were composers Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti, the writers Ippolito Pindemonte and Cesare Arici[it] as well as painter Luigi Basiletti and architect Rodolfo Vantini.[4] The latter designed the island's small port with its tower. Lechi's lover, the singer Adelaide Malanotte, was also a regular guest. In 1837, Luigi Lechi passed the property on to his brother Teodoro (1778–1866), a former general in the Napoleonic army, who – among other changes – added the terraces at the front of the villa.[3]
In 1860, the island was expropriated by the newly unified Italian state and turned into a border fortification against the Austrians, who at the time still held the region of Venetia including the eastern shore of Lake Garda.[1] Although some construction work was done, the idea to turn the island into a fortress was abandoned after the Austrians ceded most of their holdings in northern Italy to the Kingdom of Italy after the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866. After that, only the northern end of Lake Garda around Riva del Garda remained Austrian. In 1870, the island was sold at auction and purchased by Baron Scotti. He in turn sold it to Duke Gaetano de Ferrari (1818–1893) from Genoa.[6] De Ferrari and his wife, the Russian aristocrat Maria Sergeyevna Annenkova (1837–1924),[7] moved to the island.
Between 1880 and 1900 they had the park constructed, built containment walls to keep out the water and imported fertile earth and exotic plants. Whilst the park was designed from the beginning as an English landscape garden, the area in front of the house was laid out as a more formal Italian garden. In 1893, the Duke died, but the couple had previously decided to build a new villa on the site of the old Lechi villa. This Venetian neo-Gothic palace was constructed in 1890 to 1903, based on a design of architect Luigi Rovelli[it].[3]
After the Duchess died, her daughter Anna Maria (1874–1924), wife of Prince Scipione Borghese from Rome, inherited the island but she survived her mother by only a few months. In 1927, the prince died, leaving the island to his daughter, Princess Livia Borghese (1901–1969), who was married to Count Alessandro Cavazza from Bologna (1895–1969).[3][8] Their youngest son, Count Camillo Cavazza dei Conti Cavazza married Lady Charlotte Sarah Alexandra Chetwynd-Talbot (born 1938), the eldest daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1965.[9] They had seven children before Camillo Cavazza died in 1981.[9][10]
Today
The island
Today the island is owned by Lady Charlotte Cavazza. She lives on the island with her family (her seven children – four brothers and three sisters – and their families).[9] The family also owns properties on the nearby peninsula where they run businesses that include boat rental, olive growing,[11] a camping site, an agriturismo[12] and a riding school.[13]
Since 2002 the island has been open to visitors on guided tours.[5][14] It can also be rented for special events.
Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, between Brescia and Milan to the west, and Verona and Venice to the east. The lake cuts into the edge of the Italian Alps, particularly the Alpine sub-ranges of the Garda Mountains and the Brenta Group. Glaciers formed this alpine region at the end of the last ice age. The lake and its shoreline are divided between the provinces of Brescia, Verona (south-east) and Trentino (north).
Lake Como, also known as Lario, is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy.
Salò is a town and comune in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy on the banks of Lake Garda, on which it has the longest promenade. The city was the seat of government of the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945, a state often referred to as the "Salò Republic".
The Province of Verona is a province in the Veneto administrative region of Italy. On its northwestern border, Lake Garda – Italy's largest – is divided between Verona and the provinces of Brescia and Trentino. Its capital is the city of Verona. The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Desenzano del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy, on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda. It borders the communes of Castiglione delle Stiviere, Lonato, Padenghe sul Garda and Sirmione.
The Province of Brescia is a Province in the Lombardy administrative region of northern Italy. It has a population of some 1,265,964 and its capital is the city of Brescia.
Lonato del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, northern Italy. Lonato is located about halfway between Milan and Venice, on the southwest shore of Lake Garda, the biggest lake in Italy.
Manerba del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is located at the southwest side of the Lake Garda.
Puegnago del Garda is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy.
San Felice del Benaco is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, northern Italy. The name derives most likely from the Latin sinus felix, meaning "pleasant harbour".
Peschiera del Garda is a town and comune in the province of Verona, in Veneto, Italy. When Lombardy-Venetia was under Austrian rule, Peschiera was the northwest anchor of the four fortified towns constituting the Quadrilatero. The fortress is on an island in the river Mincio at its outlet from Lake Garda.
Garda is a town and comune on the shore of Lake Garda, in the province of Verona, Veneto, northeastern Italy.
The Villa del Balbianello is a villa in the comune of Lenno, a province in the north of the Lombardy region of Italy, overlooking Lake Como. It is located on the tip of the small wooded peninsula of Dosso d'Avedo on the western shore of the south-west branch of Lake Como, 1500 meters east from the Isola Comacina. The villa is famous for its elaborate terraced gardens.
Bardolino is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Verona in the Italian region Veneto, located about 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Venice and about 25 kilometres (16 mi) northwest of Verona.
Prince Luigi Marcantonio Francesco Rodolfo Scipione Borghese, commonly known as Scipione Borghese, was an Italian aristocrat, industrialist, politician, explorer, mountain climber and racing driver belonging to the House of Borghese.
The naval operations on Lake Garda in 1866 during the Third Italian War of Independence consisted of a series of clashes between flotillas of the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Empire between 25 June and 25 July that year, as they attempted to secure dominance of the lake. The Austrian fleet, based on the eastern bank of the lake, was larger, more modern and better-armed than their Italian counterpart, and successfully maintained control of the waters, hindering the movement of Italian troops.
The Rocca di Manerba del Garda is a rocky promontory, that extends along the south-western coast of Lake Garda, in Lombardy, Italy. The site, named after its medieval fortification period, is archaeologically significant, with human occupation evidenced from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, ancient Roman and Medieval periods. Archaeological features include the ruins of this medieval fortification on the summit, and, on the south-western side of the peninsula, the remains of an ancient Roman villa. It consists of two main peaks: the Rocca Vecchia and the hill with the hermitage of San Giorgio.
San Biagio island, also known as Isola dei Conigli, is an island in the north Italian Lake Garda.
References
1 2 Ladurner, Christian (2010). Rund um den Gardasee (German). Südwest Verlag. pp.60–61. ISBN978-3-517-08619-4.
↑ Simpson, Sandy (2002). "The Dehydrating Island". Anglers Times. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 14 May 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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