Eremo di San Giorgio

On the green promontory above Bardolino’s southern bay stands the Camaldolese Hermitage of San Giorgio. The land was donated to monks from Monte Rua in 1663, and the church was completed in 1704. The community belongs to the Camaldolese congregation of the Order of Saint Benedict.

Why it matters

The hermitage’s history includes Napoleonic suppression, a period of agricultural use and the return of the Camaldolese community. After the decree of 1810 emptied the complex, farmers occupied the buildings until the monks returned in 1885. The Diocese of Verona administered the site from 1962 to 1972; the hermitage is again the home of a Camaldolese community.

What to notice

The church is a single hall without an apse, flanked by four small chapels dedicated to the Madonna, San Romualdo, San Benedetto and Sant’Antonio. Olive trees surround the buildings, reflecting the agricultural life of the hermitage. The complex occupies the Rocca above the lake, with a landscape that brings together the monastic buildings, cultivated slopes and southern basin of Lake Garda.

Context and history

The Camaldolese follow an eremitical form of Benedictine monasticism associated with Saint Romuald of Ravenna and the early-eleventh-century foundation at Camaldoli in Tuscany. At San Giorgio, construction followed the 1663 donation of land on Monte San Giorgio by a Veronese nobleman. The church was completed in 1704. Following the 1810 suppression, the buildings were used by farmers until the community returned in 1885. The site’s history also includes diocesan administration between 1962 and 1972.