Isola Madre, at 220 m wide and 330 m long, is the largest island of the Isole Borromee archipelago is in the Italian part of Lake Maggiore in the Alps, in the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola, Piedmont.

The available historical sources indicate that in the middle of the ninth century the island had a church, a cemetery (whose existence is recalled by the current garden’s so-called scala dei morti, or “Staircase of the Dead”).

The Palazzo Borromeo was built in the sixteenth century on the remains of the early church, cemetery and perhaps castle of San Vittore (named after the martyr Victor Maurus).

The palace is surrounded by impressive gardens, the Giardini Botanici dell'Isola Madre, covering an area of eight hectares whose construction all’Inglese (in the English style) began in the late eighteenth century on the site of a citrus orchard.

Particularly prized is the scala dei morti, or staircase of the dead, which in recent decades has been embellished with an important collection of Wisterias.