Love nature? Got US$28 million? A Swarovski family trust is selling this private island in Venice lagoon

Isola Santa Cristina covers 72 acres in the Venice lagoon. (Filippo Molena/Venice Sothebys International Realty via CNN Newsource)

If you’re eager to escape to an idyllic landscape that produces its own exclusive wine and is surrounded by tranquil waters — and you’ve got US$28 million lying around — look no further than the Venice lagoon.

Toward the north end of the UNESCO World Heritage site lies a 72-acre private island that is on sale for the first time in more than four decades, according to a listing by Venice Sotheby’s International Realty.

The retreat, Isola Santa Cristina, was previously owned by the late Austrian entrepreneur Gernot Langes-Swarovski, the luxury real estate firm said in a statement shared with CNN on Wednesday. He was the great-grandson of the Swarovski Crystal founder Daniel Swarovski.

Santa Cristina, which has an asking price of €24 million (US$27.7 million), offers a villa with nine bedrooms and nine bathrooms. There is a heated salt-water swimming pool, vast gardens and terraces, and a boat house, as well as a separate farmhouse, chapel, a private vineyard, an olive grove and orchards with apricot and plum trees.

Venice is only about 20 minutes away by private boat — and luckily, the island has five of them, and space for five more.

But if you need to travel further, Santa Cristina has a helicopter landing pad for speedy getaways or returns.

Not that there is much need to leave what is becoming a fully self-sustaining sanctuary.

The island has its own freshwater spring, which supplies what Italy’s official tourism website describes as a “kind of miniature fish farm,” with organic fish and an array of produce.

Langes-Swarovski had a passion for agriculture, plants and wildlife, and was drawn to the island’s fishing culture, Sotheby’s said.

Isola Santa Cristina produces its own wine, Ammiana, which is not generally for sale but is reserved for the owner’s private use and as gifts.

As well as the orchards and olive groves, Langes-Swarovski was behind the introduction of a vegetable garden and beehives producing saltmarsh honey, according to Sotheby’s.

When it was first settled in the 5th century, Isola Santa Cristina was part of the so-called “garden islands” of the Ammiana archipelago. It is now the only surviving one, with rising sea levels and subsidence claiming the others.

When Langes-Swarovski bought it in 1986, Santa Cristina had been abandoned since the 15th century, Sotheby’s said.

After his death in 2021, ownership was passed to a family trust, which has continued to invest in the island in accordance with Langes-Swarovski’s values.

“Through his work and that of the trust, the island has continued to flourish and contribute to the wider understanding and protection of the Lagoon, an important resource for the economic and climactic wellbeing of the region,” Christoph Völk, chair of the trustees of the Swarovski heirs’ foundation, SEGNAL Privatstiftung, said in the statement.

“The time is now right for stewardship of Isola Santa Cristina to pass to a new custodian, who appreciates the uniqueness of the location and whose passion for ecology and the Lagoon will ensure its future,” he added.

By Amarachi Orie, CNN