Today I would like to share some information with you regarding the beautiful islands of Brissago.  Since I moved here from Spain during the late Autumn of 2010, I was fascinated by the two islands that just sits on the left of the view from my appartment. (See pictures)

Some historical background.

A Baroness,  Antoinette Saint Leger -  born in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 1856, possibly the illegitimate daughter of Tsar Alexander II, discovered the charm of the
Mediterranean climate during a visit to Italy aged 16. In an age when women’s lives were regulated and confined, Antoinette seems to have been determined to follow Mill’s advice and to experiment with different ways of living. By the age of 25 she had already seen off two elderly husbands and had married a third: the Anglo-Irish Lord Richard Fleming-Saint Leger.

In 1885,  she persuaded him to buy the deserted Brissago Islands, just off the coast of the village of Ascona in Lake Maggiore, close to the border that separates Italy from Switzerland.
The baroness loved to play piano (her teacher had been Franz Liszt) and to collect art, but her greatest love, was gardening. The couple proceeded to import thousands
of plants from all over the world and created a garden paradise on the larger of their two islands.
As the wealthy and generous Lady of her own islands, the baroness attracted an increasing collection of composers and musicians, artists and writers to her little colony.
She loved the company of artists and among those she supported were the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo and the painter Giovanni Segantini.

In 1897 her husband abandoned Antoinette, due to, it is said, her insatiable desire for erotic adventures and risky commercial escapades. On the islands themselves,
surrounded by her  garden and her memories, Baroness Antoinette gradually lost her goodlooks and gradually wasted away her fortune on bad investments.  By the 1920s she was alone on her island, her only company the thousands of plants and trees and the hundreds of homemade
puppets that populated her large house. In 1927, close to bankruptcy, alone and elderly, the baroness was forced to sell her beautiful islands and her magnificent garden to a German owner of a department store empire, Max Emden.
Antoinette lived nearby for over two decades more, gradually succumbing to poverty. She died in an old people’s home in 1948, close to penniless.  Her remains were moved to the island during the 1960s. Hers is the only grave on the island.

Max Emden did not have the passion for botany or horticulture. He remained on the islands up to 1940 when he died in the hospital of Locarno. The heirs of Emden sold the Islands of Brissago to the government of the Canton Ticino.  On April 2nd 1950 the gates were opened
to the public for the first time.

Two Islands – on the Lake Maggiore in Switzerland

On Isola Grande, the bigger island,  famous for its splendid botanic garden which covers the whole island.The 2.5-hectare park houses plants from nearly all of
the subtropical regions of Asia, South Africa, America, Australia and the islands of Oceania.
The mild climate at Lago Maggiore is unique in Switzerland, enables subtropical plants to flourish in the open air.

The smaller island of the group known as Isolino, Isola Piccola or Isola di Sant’Apollinare, has an amazing and dense natural vegetation.

The Botanical Gardens house around 1,700 plant species.
Lotus blossoms, giant sequoias, bald cypresses, perennial
banana plants, and even eucalyptus trees grow in the Botanical Gardens on the two Brissago islands in Lago Maggiore.

Immersed in the waters of the Verbano (local name for this part of Lake Maggiore), which accumulate heat during the summer and return it to the atmosphere in the winter,
the Islands of Brissago enjoy a particularly mild, subtropical climate with only a few days of frost occurring a year.

The 2.5-hectare park houses plants from nearly all of the subtropical regions of Asia, South Africa, America, Australia and the islands of Oceania.
The smaller Brissago island, Isola di Sant’Apollinare, is covered by vegetation that grows of its own accord, and that is kept in its natural state.

A visit to the botanical gardens on the Islands of Brissago is a must for anyone staying in the region. The main season for visiting these spectacular islands is from: March to October,daily from 09:00 till 18:00.  There are different boat trips from Brissago, or Italy.

Picture Gallery