Square
Piazza San Fedele
A grain deal is under way, the square is packed, and timber upper floors jut over the traders as if the buildings want in on the bargaining. Beneath them may be the footprint of Roman Como’s forum.
Why it is worth the detour
An intimate medieval square believed to occupy part of Roman Como’s forum. Later used as a grain market, it still keeps the porticoes and projecting timber houses of the old walled city.
Piazza San Fedele is a charming medieval square in Como, known for its historical significance as part of the Roman forum and later as a grain market. It features porticoes and timber houses reminiscent of the old walled city.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Augustus
A marble head portraying Augustus as pontifex maximus was found in the square area in the sixteenth century.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
50 m
Basilica of San Fedele
Volta had been dead for just one week when Como gathered inside this church to decide how he would be remembered. A young priest arrived with a commemorative poem—and soon wrote the inventor’s first biography.
100 m
Terragni Family Home and Studio
In 1927, Giuseppe and Attilio Terragni opened an architectural practice on the ground floor of their family home. One address now held domestic life, bold professional ambitions, and—later—a troubling connection to Fascist municipal power.
200 m
Church of San Donnino
A newborn is carried in for baptism; eighty-two years later, the same church holds his funeral. Between those two ceremonies, Alessandro Volta reportedly packed San Donnino with Sunday catechism lessons so popular that some young listeners could not find room.
200 m
Roman Baths of Como
A car noses in looking for a space; one level below, a Roman bathing complex waits under the garage. Como delivers antiquity in wonderfully deadpan packaging.
250 m
Teatro Sociale
It is 1944. Milan’s La Scala has been damaged in the war, and Como’s former cinema is handed an extraordinary role: alternative opera house.
250 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.