The larger island, Isola Grande or St. Pancrazio, was opened to the public in 1950. In 1885 the baroness Antoinette Saint Leger transformed the islands into a residence where painters, sculptors, musicians and writers could meet. The big island became an exotic garden. In 1927 the new owner, the businessman Max Emden from Hamburg, had the actual palazzo, the dock and Roman bath built and increased the cultivation of exotic plants.