Clinging to a sheer rock overhanging one of the deepest parts of Lake Maggiore, the Hermitage is a monastery made up of three buildings. Art and history blend perfectly in one of the most charming natural canvases on Lake Maggiore, in which the rock appears to almost form a balcony leaning out towards the Borromean Islands. Legend has it that it was Alberto da Besozzo who founded the hermitage in the 12th century, in honour of St. Catherine of Egypt, whom he had invoked during a shipwreck on the Lake Maggiore.