Isola Bella, the Baroque garden?island of Lake Maggiore
Published on 08/30/2026 at 12:52 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Isola Bella is a small island off Stresa on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, transformed between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries into a Baroque palace and terraced garden under the Borromeo family. The project began in 1632 under Carlo III Borromeo, who renamed the former fishing rock Isola Isabella in honour of his wife Isabella D’Adda and commissioned a grand residence with formal gardens that together give the island the outline of a stone ship on the water.
From fishing village to Baroque showpiece
Isola Bella lies just off the lakeside town of Stresa in Piedmont, part of the group known as the Borromean Islands in the central basin of Lake Maggiore. Before the seventeenth century it was a rocky crag occupied by a small fishing community and two churches, known locally as the “lower island” or Isola Inferiore.rocky crag with a fishing village The change began once Carlo III Borromeo acquired the whole island and decided to turn it into a princely seat facing the western shore of the lake.
In 1632 Carlo III commissioned Milanese architect Giovanni Angelo Crivelli to design a palace and to lay out gardens on the narrow rock, with an overall plan that would give the island the dramatic silhouette of a vessel.commissioned the construction of the palace The new name Isola Isabella, later shortened to Isola Bella, commemorated Isabella D’Adda, and the Borromeo family remained owners of the island across the centuries.owned the island since the seventeenth century Work on buildings and gardens continued under later generations, with the Baroque layout largely in place by the later seventeenth century and refinements extending into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Palazzo Borromeo: a layered Baroque residence
Almost the entire island is occupied by Palazzo Borromeo and its garden, so that built stone, terraces and vegetation form a single composition rising from the lake. The palace dates mainly from the seventeenth century, with phases of interior work and extension during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that turned it into an ornate Baroque residence with suites of formal rooms.Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella Floors inside the palace include grand salons, galleries and chambers decorated with frescoes, stucco, portraits and tapestries that reflect the Borromeo family’s status.
One of the most distinctive parts of the palace complex is the suite of lower halls constructed with rustic stone surfaces and cool, grotto-like decoration, opening towards the water and emphasising the island setting.villa and Italian garden of the Baroque period Upper levels contain more formal state rooms, laid out for receptions with views across Lake Maggiore to the surrounding mountains. As the palace evolved “in its present form” during the twentieth century, additions such as the Salone Nuovo completed in 1948 linked earlier Baroque spaces into a coherent route between interior and garden.completion of the Salone Nuovo in 1948
A garden shaped like a stone ship
The garden of Isola Bella was conceived together with the palace as an Italian-style Baroque composition, its terraces stepping down towards the southern tip of the island and rising above the lake in a stacked structure of stone, balustrades and planted beds.garden conceived as a complement to the palazzo From early on the intention was that the island should resemble a ship, with the palace forming the bow and the main terraces and ornamental features aligning towards the stern at the far end of the rock.island transformed to take the form of a ship
The formal garden includes terraces edged by balustrades, lawns and parterres, statues and obelisks that punctuate viewpoints, and beds planted with a mixture of Mediterranean and more exotic species suited to the lake’s climate.formal Italian-style Baroque garden on artificial terraces Central features rise above the terraces in a layered arrangement that reinforces the garden?ship outline when seen from boats or from the opposite shore. The result is that stone walls, stairways and sculptural elements are closely interwoven with planting, making the garden read as an extension of the palace architecture rather than a separate park.
Visiting Isola Bella: what travellers from Western Europe should know
- Isola Bella lies in Lake Maggiore just off Stresa in northern Italy, reached by scheduled boats and private taxi-boats from lakeside towns such as Stresa, Baveno, Verbania and Laveno.
- The island is compact and largely covered by the palace and terraces, so a visit involves walking on stone steps and sloping paths between levels, with some narrow staircases inside the palace.
- 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 a small island in Lake Maggiore off the town of Stresa in northern Italy, part of the Borromean Islands group near the lake’s western shore.
What can visitors expect during a visit to Isola Bella?
A visit centres on Palazzo Borromeo and its Baroque garden, with interior rooms, grotto-like lower halls and tiered terraces of stone, statues and planting rising above the lake.
What makes Isola Bella distinctive among Italian lake islands?
The combination of a seventeenth-century palace and a formal Italian garden laid out to give the entire island the outline of a stone ship on the water makes Isola Bella distinctive.
