Basilica di San Giulio

On a small island in the center of Lake Orta, a Romanesque basilica holds the relics of the 4th-century Greek evangelist who founded it after — according to legend — sailing to the island on his cloak and driving out its dragons. Today, the rest of the island is occupied by enclosed Benedictine nuns who have taken a vow of silence. A circular path called the Way of Silence rings the island, its meditative plaques in four languages inviting walkers into stillness. To reach any of this, you must cross water.

The island of San Giulio is small — barely three hundred metres across at its widest — but it holds more than its size suggests. At its center stands the Basilica di San Giulio, a Romanesque church whose foundations rest on those of a chapel built around 390 AD by Julius of Novara, a Greek evangelist from the island of Aegina. According to tradition, Julius sailed to the island on his cloak and freed it from serpents and dragons — creatures understood as symbols of the paganism that preceded Christianity here. He built the hundredth and last church of his life on this ground.

The basilica visible today dates primarily to the twelfth century, built on the model of the ancient cathedral of Novara. Romanesque features — the facade, the apses, the women's galleries, the carved capitals — coexist with Baroque additions of stucco and gilding. The celebrated marble pulpit, carved from local Oira stone, is a masterpiece of Romanesque sculpture. In the crypt beneath the high altar, a glass casket displays the remains of San Giulio himself — bones that have occupied this island for sixteen centuries.

But the basilica shares its island with another presence. In 1976, the Abbazia Mater Ecclesiae was established here, and the island became home to one of the largest communities of enclosed Benedictine nuns in the world. Their monastery occupies most of the island's buildings, and their rule of silence pervades the atmosphere. Visitors walking the island's perimeter path — the Via del Silenzio e della Meditazione — encounter plaques bearing meditative sayings in four languages. The path takes perhaps fifteen minutes to walk, but its effect can last considerably longer.

To visit the island, you must take a ferry from Orta San Giulio. The crossing is brief — a few minutes — but the act of leaving the shore and approaching a place defined by silence, relics, and monastic enclosure creates a threshold that no bridge could replicate.

Founded c. 390 AD by Julius of Novara, rebuilt in Romanesque style in the 12th century, and home to an enclosed Benedictine community since 1976.

Julius of Novara, a Greek from the island of Aegina, and his brother Julian dedicated their later lives to evangelizing the lands around Lake Orta. According to tradition, Julius reached the island by sailing on his own cloak — a detail that echoes the miraculous crossings of other saints and suggests that the ordinary laws of passage did not apply to him. On the island, he drove out serpents and dragons, cleared the ground, and built a small church dedicated to the Twelve Apostles. It was, the tradition tells us, the hundredth church of his life — his last.

The island traces a lineage from early Christian evangelization through medieval episcopal significance to modern monastic contemplation. The Benedictine community's arrival in 1976 did not break this lineage but extended it — adding a living dimension of silence and prayer to the accumulated weight of architecture and relics.

The thinness is structural: an island separated from the ordinary world by water, inhabited by silence, built on the bones of a saint who defeated dragons. Every element — water, silence, relics, legend — reinforces the sense of a place set apart.

Islands are inherently liminal. They require crossing to reach. They impose their own boundaries. The island of San Giulio adds to this natural liminality a series of deliberate separations: the monastery's enclosure, the nuns' vow of silence, the meditative path that asks visitors to walk quietly, the crypt that holds bones sixteen centuries old.

The legend of San Giulio's dragon-slaying adds a mythic dimension. In the language of hagiography, dragons represent the old order — the forces of chaos or paganism that must be overcome before the sacred can be established. Julius did not merely build a church; he transformed the island's fundamental nature. Whether one reads this as history, metaphor, or both, the story establishes the island as a place where one order of reality yielded to another.

The Benedictine nuns who now inhabit the island continue this work of transformation, though in a quieter register. Their silence is not absence — it is a practice, a discipline, a form of attention. The Way of Silence translates this practice into a form accessible to visitors: walk slowly, read the plaques, notice what happens when noise falls away.

The crypt completes the vertical dimension. Above, the Baroque interior glitters. Below, a saint's bones rest in a glass casket. Between the two — between ornament and remains, between surface and depth — the basilica holds a tension that it does not attempt to resolve.

Founded c. 390 AD by Julius of Novara as his hundredth church, dedicated to the Twelve Apostles, on an island he reportedly freed from serpents and dragons.

From a 4th-century evangelist's chapel through a 12th-century Romanesque rebuilding to a Baroque interior renovation, the basilica has been continuously adapted while preserving its ancient foundation. The establishment of the Benedictine monastery in 1976 added a new dimension — the island became not just a place with a sacred building but a place where sacred practice saturates the atmosphere.

The Way of Silence, the basilica visit, and the veneration of San Giulio's relics in the crypt constitute the primary visitor practices. The Benedictine nuns maintain their enclosed rule.

Veneration of San Giulio's relics has continued since the 4th century. The basilica has served as a parish church and a place of pilgrimage. The feast of San Giulio is celebrated annually.

The Way of Silence, established by the Benedictine community, has become the defining practice for visitors. The circular walk with its meditative plaques offers a structured form of contemplation accessible to people of any or no religious tradition. The basilica holds regular services.

Walk the Way of Silence with genuine attention to the plaques and to the quality of quiet. Visit the basilica without rushing — let the transition from Romanesque structure to Baroque surface register. Descend to the crypt. If the timing of your visit coincides with the sound of the nuns singing, allow that to be the accompaniment to your experience rather than something to seek out.

The ferry crossing, the Way of Silence, the Romanesque basilica, and the crypt with San Giulio's relics create a layered experience of threshold, silence, beauty, and depth.

The experience begins with water. The ferry from Orta San Giulio takes only minutes, but the crossing marks a transition. As the mainland recedes, the island's profile emerges — the basilica's tower and apse rising from a cluster of old buildings, the monastery walls creating a sense of enclosure even from a distance.

Landing on the island, you encounter the first plaque of the Way of Silence. The path rings the island's perimeter, and the sayings — in Italian, French, German, and English — invite a shift in pace and attention. 'In silence you accept and understand,' reads one. 'Walls are in the mind,' reads another. The monastery buildings line much of the path, their shuttered windows a reminder that behind them, a community lives in perpetual quiet.

The basilica interior opens unexpectedly from the island's narrow lanes. Romanesque bones — columns, capitals, the women's galleries — support a Baroque skin of stucco, gilding, and painted vaults. The marble pulpit from Oira commands attention: a dense field of Romanesque carving that rewards close looking. The overall effect is of a building that has absorbed multiple centuries without losing its structural integrity.

Descend to the crypt. The relics of San Giulio lie in a glass casket beneath the high altar. The space is small, dim, and cool. The transition from the ornate nave to the spare crypt mirrors the island's own movement from surface to depth — from Baroque display to ancient bone.

Return to the Way of Silence for the second half of the circuit. The plaques continue their quiet instruction. The water surrounds you on all sides. The nuns are invisible but present. The ferry back to the mainland completes the circuit — another crossing, another threshold — and the noise of the shore feels different than it did before.

Take the ferry from Orta San Giulio. Walk the Way of Silence clockwise or counterclockwise — it does not matter. Enter the basilica. Spend time with the pulpit and then descend to the crypt. Complete the Way of Silence. Take the ferry back. Allow at least an hour, and do not rush.

The island of San Giulio can be approached through hagiography, monastic tradition, art history, or the phenomenology of silence — each lens revealing a different dimension.

Art historians note the basilica's significance as an example of northern Italian Romanesque architecture with important Baroque additions. The marble pulpit is recognized as a major work of Romanesque sculpture. Archaeological excavations have confirmed the antiquity of the site.

Within Catholic tradition, the island embodies the intersection of active evangelization (San Giulio) and contemplative withdrawal (the Benedictine nuns). The relics in the crypt and the living community above represent two forms of sacred presence — one preserved in death, the other maintained through daily practice.

The experience of crossing water to reach a place of silence, walking a circular path, and descending to a crypt resonates with patterns found across the world's contemplative traditions. The Way of Silence, with its non-denominational tone, makes the island's contemplative offering available to visitors of any background.

Whether the island held sacred significance before Julius arrived remains an open question. The 'dragons' he defeated may hint at earlier cult activity, but no archaeological evidence of pre-Christian worship has been identified on the island. The absence of evidence is not, of course, evidence of absence.

Reached by ferry from Orta San Giulio on the western shore of Lake Orta, Piedmont.

Regular ferry service from Orta San Giulio (departures every 15-30 minutes in season). Water taxis also available. No cars on the island.

Hotels and B&Bs in Orta San Giulio; lakeside accommodations around Lake Orta. No accommodation on the island itself.

The island is a place of monastic silence. Visitors are asked to speak quietly or not at all. The monastery is closed to the public.

The island of San Giulio is not a tourist attraction in the ordinary sense. It is a place where a community lives in silence, and where visitors are invited to share in that silence for the duration of their stay. The Way of Silence is not a suggestion but an ethic. Speak quietly if you must speak. Walk slowly. Put your phone away. The nuns have offered something — a quality of attention — and the appropriate response is to receive it with corresponding care.

Shoulders and knees covered for the basilica. Casual for the Way of Silence.

Exterior photography and the Way of Silence are generally fine. Check current policy for the basilica interior. Do not photograph the monastery or nuns.

Candles available in the basilica.

The monastery is strictly closed to visitors | Maintain silence or very quiet speech throughout the island | Do not photograph the nuns or monastery | Respect the contemplative atmosphere

Sacred places within a half-day’s reach. Pilgrims often visit them together: walk one, stay for the other.

Sacro Monte di Orta

Orta San Giulio, Piedmont, Italia

0.8 km away

Sacro Monte di Varallo

Varallo, Piedmont, Italia

11.5 km away

Santuario di N.S. di Oropa, Italy

Biella, Piedmont, Italy

37.4 km away

Our Lady of Einsiedeln

Einsiedeln, Canton Schwyz, Switzerland

150.4 km away