Monument
Monument to Alessandro Volta
One marble scientist, one brutally short inscription, and an entire square loses its old name. Como pulled off a remarkably efficient civic rebrand.
Why it is worth the detour
Pompeo Marchesi’s marble statue turned Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first electrical battery, into Como’s secular civic hero. Its remarkably brief dedication also helped give the entire square Volta’s name.
The Monument to Alessandro Volta is a marble statue by Pompeo Marchesi, celebrating the inventor of the first electrical battery. It stands in Piazza Alessandro Volta, highlighting Volta's significance to the city of Como.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Alessandro Volta
He is represented standing atop the monument's massive pedestal.
Pompeo Marchesi
The leading neoclassical sculptor produced the marble statue unveiled in 1838.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
50 m
Former Albergo Posta
Terragni submits a design for a small hotel. The municipal authorities reject it. Then they reject another—and another. Six variants later, this compact building has become architecture’s answer to a painfully long email thread.
100 m
Casa Bazzi
You arrive at number 3 looking for one old house. Slight problem: Casa Bazzi is three houses sharing a single address—and about five centuries of building history.
150 m
Roman Theatre Remains at Via Vitani 13
Number 13 looks like an ordinary Como address. Then, in 1990, excavations inside uncovered seven radial walls pointing to a much bigger story: a vanished Roman theatre.
150 m
Hotel Metropole-Suisse Façade
First commission, first contradiction: Giuseppe Terragni was publicly attacking academic architecture with Gruppo 7 while cautiously preserving some of its vocabulary on the façade in front of you.
150 m
Torre Demorata
The Rusca have won. Money is not enough; according to Como tradition, they want their rivals’ tower cut down to size.
200 m
Nobel Room at the Carducci Institute
One photograph, four names that could headline a history of modern physics: Marconi, Planck, Bohr, and Fermi. In 1927, they all turned up at this building in Como.
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.