Isola Bella, a Baroque garden?island off Stresa
Published on 09/11/2026 at 19:16 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Isola Bella off Stresa in northern Italy is a compact island reshaped between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries into a Baroque palace and formal terraced garden that together evoke the outline of a stone ship on Lake Maggiore. Its transformation under the Borromeo family, beginning with Carlo III Borromeo in the 1630s, turned a rocky fishing settlement into Palazzo Borromeo and an Italianate garden that remain a tightly choreographed ensemble of architecture, water and planting.
An island turned into a princely Baroque residence
Isola Bella lies a short distance off the lakeside town of Stresa in the Borromean Gulf of Lake Maggiore, part of the small group known as the Isole Borromee that have been associated with the Borromeo family since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.off the coast of Stresa The island is relatively small in plan but almost entirely occupied by Palazzo Borromeo and its gardens, with a compact fishing village pressed against the palace’s northern flank.almost entirely occupied by Palazzo Borromeo
Until the early seventeenth century the island was a rocky outcrop inhabited by fishermen, with simple houses and small churches.a rock inhabited by fishermen Around 1630–1632 Carlo III Borromeo began a grand project to create a residence dedicated to his wife Isabella d’Adda, commissioning Milanese designer Angelo Crivelli to design the palace and lay out gardens on the narrow rock.construction began under Carlo III Borromeo The island’s name was changed to Isola Isabella in honour of Isabella d’Adda and later shortened to Isola Bella, a change that encapsulates the shift from working island to courtly retreat.renamed Isola Isabella for Isabella d’Adda
Palazzo Borromeo: salons, galleries and grottoes
Palazzo Borromeo at the southern end of Isola Bella is a multi-storey Baroque residence whose principal rooms look out over the lake and the terraced garden. The building crystallised mainly in the seventeenth century, with later work during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries refining its layout and decoration.palace dates mainly from the seventeenth century Inside, suites of salons and galleries are decorated with frescoes, stucco and portraiture that reflect the Borromeo family’s status and the tastes of the period.grand salons and galleries
Among the spaces, the Berthier Gallery is known for its long sequence of paintings hung closely together, while lower rooms incorporate decorative grottoes faced with stone, shell and textured surfaces that form a cool contrast to the formal salons above.Berthier Gallery and grottoes The palace floors connect through staircases and corridors that occasionally open onto views of the garden terraces, underlining how closely the architectural and garden compositions are intertwined.
A terraced Italianate garden shaped like a ship
The garden of Isola Bella is laid out as a sequence of geometric terraces rising above the water, designed in the Italian Baroque manner with balustraded edges, clipped hedging and axial paths that radiate from a central focus.Italian Baroque garden terraces From the outset, the garden was conceived as an organic complement to the palace, forming a single composition in which architecture, stonework, water and planting are interdependent.palace and garden conceived together
Both palace and garden contribute to the island’s ship-like outline: the mass of the building forms what visitors often read as the prow, while the layered terraces step up behind it like the stern of a vessel rising from the lake.palace as prow and garden as stern The terraces incorporate statues, balustrades and ornamental plantings, including evergreen forms and seasonal displays, arranged to give framed views across Lake Maggiore to the surrounding shore and mountains.terraced Italianate garden
Visiting Isola Bella: what travellers from Western Europe should know
- Isola Bella lies in Lake Maggiore just off Stresa in northern Italy, reached by boat services that connect the town’s lakeside promenade with the island’s small harbour.
- The palace and garden rise over several levels, with staircases and stepped terraces; visiting involves walking up and down stone steps both inside the building and in the garden.
- The island is part of the Borromean Gulf, close to Isola Madre and Isola dei Pescatori, so crossings by boat link several islands in short succession.
- The official language is Italian and the currency is the euro.
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Frequently asked questions about Isola Bella
Where is Isola Bella and how is it situated?
Isola Bella is an island in Lake Maggiore a short distance off Stresa in northern Italy, within the Borromean Gulf among the Isole Borromee.
What should visitors expect on a visit to Isola Bella?
A visit centres on Palazzo Borromeo with its decorated salons and grottoes, and on the terraced Italianate garden that steps up from the lakeshore with statues and structured planting.
What makes Isola Bella distinctive among lake islands?
The combination of Baroque palace and formal terraced garden on a confined rock, conceived to evoke the outline of a stone ship on the water, gives Isola Bella a particularly theatrical character.
