is the seat of the great Benedictine Monastery Mater Ecclesiae, the largest monastery of enclosed Benedictine nuns in the world. The abbess is Anna Maria Cànopi, author and poet.
The island is also the seat of Poetry on the Lake,,organiser of the international festival described by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy as "the most wonderful poetry festival in the world"
Here too is Sala Tallone, renowned for its concerts of classical music and the original pianoforte handmade by Tallone.
This antique island has a strange history. There are legends of dragons, stories of saints. It has inspired literary figures and artists, it is loved by mystics and magicians.
The Lake
Lake Orta is a glacial lake in the Alpine foothills of north Italy. A thousand feet above sea-level, it is enclosed by mountains and high hills rich in chestnuts, birch and, thanks to its micro-climate, palms. Tiny medieval villages stud the banks and St Julius’ Isle floats in front of the pretty little town of Orta.
St Giulio
On the island a monastery of enclosed Benedictine nuns has substituted the dark ages castle, a place of sieges and executions. Even earlier “there were dragons” but sixteen hundred years ago St Julius arrived from Greece, floated over to the island on his mantle, and cast out the dragons. His bones, finely robed, can be seen still in the crypt of the old basilica on the island and it is told that the thaumaturgic saint still performs miracles.
William of Volpiano
the great abbot and founder of monasteries, was born on the island during the seige of 962, which found Willa, the Italian Queen, on the island with all her kingdom’s treasure, attempting to resist the Emperor Otto the Great. She lost. What happened to the treasure is a mystery.
Sacro Monte
Now, to see the island veiled in mist and hear the clear ringing of bells summon the nuns to prayer from their cloistered gardens scented with wysteria and roses, the clamours and bloodshed are far away. Music floats over the waters from the Villa Tallone, gregorian chant from the basilica. Above Orta the antique woods of Sacro Monte with the little chapels scattered under the limes, the beeches and the camphor, remind us that here Nietzsche lost his heart to Lou Salomé.
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Literary references to Orta are many: besides Thus Spake Zarathustra, dated von Orta an, the lake has inspired Robert Browning, George Meredith, Honoré de Balzac, Eugenio Montale and many others. For here is an enchanted world, and a myriad of stories are reflected in the shimmering waters.
(from Hortus Conclusus, ed.Gabriel Griffin, Wyvern Works 2005)
