Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso Ballaro

The Hermitage of Santa Caterina is a place of ancient charm, where nature, art and history blend with the rock of Sasso Ballaro to which it clings, as a silent guardian of the waters of Lake Maggiore. Legend has it that it originated at the end of the 12th century, with the shipwreck of the greedy merchant Alberto Besozzi who found salvation, through the intercession of the Saint of Egypt, in the place where he would live as a hermit. Over the centuries, the Dominicans, the friars of Sant'Ambrogio ad Nemus and then the Carmelites have come and gone. After the suppression around 1770 and almost two centuries of abandonment, it was the Province of Varese, owner of the place, who brought it back to life by combining the museum soul with the religious one thanks to the Franciscan Fraternity of Bethany which lives there today.