Architecture
Former Royal Silk School
Backpacks, lessons, the daily school run: the former Royal Silk School has found the perfect disguise. Como’s textile history is still here—it just looks busy with homework.
Why it is worth the detour
Built between 1908 and 1910 for Como’s expanding state silk school, this building provided laboratories and classrooms for the city’s dominant industry. Today it houses the Teresa Ciceri high school, so an important piece of textile history is hiding in plain sight.
Built between 1908 and 1910, the Former Royal Silk School served as a hub for Como's silk industry, providing laboratories and classrooms. Today, it houses the Teresa Ciceri high school, preserving an important piece of textile history.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Paolo Carcano
His political support helped transform Como’s workers’ silk school into a national state institution, which was subsequently named for him.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
50 m
Alessandro Volta High School and Science Museum
A marble Alessandro Volta has presided over this institution since 1832, looking less like a former teacher and more like the patron saint of physics homework. The twist? The real Volta never taught in the building in front of you.
50 m
Roman Gate of Como
In 1914, builders broke ground for a Como school and found that someone had beaten them to the site by roughly two thousand years. Beneath their feet was the Roman city’s main southern gate.
50 m
Church and Former Monastery of Santa Cecilia
In 1339, Como’s defenses needed more room. One awkward detail: part of a convent was in the way.
100 m
Porta Torre
In 1127, Milan had won, and Como’s Roman defenses lay demolished. The tower in front of you is Como’s reply—delivered in stone and aimed directly down the road toward its former enemy.
200 m
San Vitale Tower
After Como’s ruinous war with Milan, the city’s southern edge acquired a blunt message in stone: fewer openings, stronger defenses, no decorative fuss. San Vitale was architecture saying, very firmly, “Not again.”
200 m
Como Civic Art Gallery
At number 84, you came looking for Como’s town art gallery and found it inside a 17th-century palazzo. The building gets equal billing with the art.
Walk it with the stories
This address is one stop among many. Our routes and quests link them into a walk that makes sense on the ground.