BRISSAGO ISLANDS
The botanical garden takes shape as an open narrative. Species from different parts of the world coexist in a natural balance, shaped by climate and light.
The landscape changes with the gaze and with time, without ever imposing itself. A place that invites observation, calm, a different relationship with time.
More than two thousand botanical species from all over the world coexist on the island in a surprisingly natural balance. Bamboo, Musa basjoo, and ginkgo evoke Far Eastern atmospheres; large-flowered magnolias, agaves, yuccas, cypresses, and California poppies tell of Central American landscapes.
Instead, sage, rosemary, cork oaks, and Canary Island palms restore the light and scents of the Mediterranean countryside.
A set of botanical landscapes that intertwine seamlessly, shaping a living, layered garden in constant dialogue with the lake.
Hotel guests can experience the garden freely and catch a more intimate dimension of it in quieter moments.
The Brissago Islands are part of the Garden Network of Switzerland, which brings together some of the country’s most significant botanical gardens.
THE HISTORY
1885 – 1927
ANTOINETTE
In 1885, Richard Fleming, an Anglo-Irishman of the St. Leger family and his Russsian wife, Antoniette, purchased the Brissago Islands. They built a large house on Isola Grande and began to create the botanical garden, bringing soil and manure to the island by boat. Twelve years later, Richard Fleming left the islands for Naples but his wife, Antoniette, stayed and continued to develop the garden.
From 1886 onwards, Antoinette transformed the islands into a creative residence, inviting artists and sculptors such as Danielle Ranzoni, Filippo Franzoni and Giovanni Segantini, writers including James Joyce, Rainer Maria Rilke and Harry Graf Kessler and the composer Ruggero Leoncavallo. After the First World War, Antoinette found herself in significant debt and in 1927, she was forced to sell the property and move to the mainland where she lived on government support until her death in 1948.
1928 – 1949
MAX EMDEN
In 1928, Max Emden, a successful businessman from Hamburg, purchased the islands and commissioned architect, Alfred Breslauer, to the neoclassical Villa Emden that still stands today. Emden lived on the islands until his death in 1940 and passed the islands on to his son, Hans Erich, who later sold the islands to the Swiss Heritage society in 1949, opening the islands up to the public.
1950 – PRESENT
THE BOTANICAL GARDEN
In 1949, Emden’s heirs made an offer to Canton Ticino to purchase the Brissago Islands. Thus, Canton Ticino, together with the municipalities of Ascona, Brissago and Ronco sopra Ascona, plus the Swiss Nature Protection League (known today as the Swiss Heritage Society) decided to purchase the Islands and the Palace. The purchasing contract, signed on September 2nd, 1949, states that the islands and its buildings have solely conservation, culture, scientific and tourism purposes that have to respect the primary purpose of conservation and enhancement of natural beauty. On the morning of April 2nd, 1950, on Palm Sunday, the Brissago Islands were finally opened to the public.
In 2019, the Brissago Island were acquired by the Canton Ticino.
THE MAGIC OF THE ISLANDS
The Brissago Islands are a place layered in time. They have passed through different eras and visions, leaving legible traces even today
The villa, the garden, the paths, the interiors: everything tells a story made up of passages, transformations, successive attentions. Nothing stands still, nothing is random.
As is often the case, islands can be observed from afar, in their overall harmony, or up close. And it is by getting closer that they reveal their deeper nature: unexpected botanical details, materials, proportions, architectural marks, surfaces.
In nature as in interiors, elegance is never ostentatious, but quietly present.
The magic of the islands comes from this very balance: a place that reveals itself discreetly, to those who have the time and sensitivity to really look.
GIVE A GREATE MEMORY
