The Path of Invention

The Gattoni Tower

Information
Location: the Gattoni Tower is located on the corner of Viale Varese and Viale Cattaneo in Como
Paving: the tower is surrounded on four sides by a wide grassy strip separated by a stone curb of about 10 centimetres from the market area that runs along the Varese and Cattaneo avenues
Access: –
Services: parking in the dedicated area along Viale Varese; urban and suburban bus stops available in the area; ATMs in via Giulini, via Milano-corner Piazza Vittoria. Municipal Library of Como in Piazzetta Venosto Lucati
Leisure and Catering: bars and cafes in the area; public garden along Viale Varese with fountain
Other information: the tower is still owned by the Municipality of Como and is open to the public only on special occasions

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

While Giulio Cesare Gattoni (1741-1809) was attending the last year of Rhetoric with the Jesuits, in 1758, Alessandro Volta (four years younger than him), whom Gattoni had already been living for some time as a neighbour and playmate, also entered the college. The closeness in the studies deepened their familiarity and a solid friendship and collaboration was born, favoured by common interests and curiosity about physical phenomena. In the laboratory that he had initially set up in his own home, Gattoni, ordained a priest in 1765 and appointed Canon of the cathedral, frequently hosted his friend, with whom he conducted his first experiments on natural phenomena, the properties of gases, electricity and meteorology. As a result of these experiments, in 1869 Volta wrote his dissertation De vi attractiva ignis electrici ac phoenomenis inde pendentibus, dedicated to Giovanni Battista Beccaria and, in 1771, the text Novus ac simplicissimus electricorum tentaminum apparatus, dedicated to Lazzaro Spallanzani. Remembering that period, Gattoni wrote that in Volta he had found an “indivisible companion”, but from 1774 their relations became less close, since the latter was appointed Regent of the Public Schools of Como and, subsequently, professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Pavia. Probably around 1784 (as attested by Giovio himself) Gattoni obtained in use from the Municipality of Como (thanks to the support of Giovan Battista Giovio,  then Conservator in the Congregation of Heritage), the ancient medieval tower of Porta Nuova (today better known as Torre Gattoni), to move the physics laboratory he had at his home, also creating a meteorological observatory and a museum with stuffed animals, shells, minerals, as well as weapons, armour and archaeological finds. The building marks the south-eastern corner of the city walls; it took its name from the New Castle erected at the same time as the city walls in 1158 and destroyed in 1447, at the time of the Republic of Sant’Abbondio, because it was considered superfluous. It has a pentagonal plan (like the contemporary Tower of San Vitale located at the opposite end of the southern side of the walls) and is characterized by a slight inclination, perhaps already manifested during its construction. This museum must have been quite famous at the time, so much so that it was visited by celebrities such as the polygraph scientist Carlo Amoretti, the naturalist Candida Lena Perpenti and the Swiss mountaineer and scientist Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. On the roof of his house in Contrada di Porta Nuova he had installed a Franklinian bar in 1768, built in such a way as to act simultaneously as a lightning rod (most likely the first in Italy) and as an «explorer of atmospheric electricity“, as he himself wrote; when he came in possession of the Tower, he moved it to its roof. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Gattoni opened the museum of natural sciences, the physics cabinet and the meteorological observatory to the teachers and students of the new high school (the Lyceum) in Como. Before his death in 1809, he donated his equipment twice to the same Lyceum, which in 1865 was dedicated to his friend Alessandro Volta; his donations are remembered by a plaque on the short staircase leading to the Institute’s new library, erected immediately after his death by the Prefect of the Province, Michele Vismara by decree of Viceroy Eugenio Beauharnais. The dedication of the monument to electricity was subsequently renewed around the thirties of the last century, when the Tower became the site of the first electrical substation that supplied the current for the lighting of the walled city,  which remained active until 1958. This is still evidenced today by the presence of the electrical panel with measuring instruments and disconnectors, as well as the transformers of the “rock-and-tilt” type.

Contacts
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more about the relationship between Gattoni and Volta:
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giulio-cesare-gattoni_(Dictionary-Biographical)/
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Cesare_Gattoni

To find out more:
Tourist site of the Municipality of Como
Site dedicated to Alessandro Volta
Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” 

“Alessandro Volta” High School

Information
Location: the headquarters of the Liceo Classico e Scientifico “A. Volta” are in via Cesare Cantù 57 in Como
Paving: via Battisti is made of porphyry tiles with side bands paved in stone; the steps leading to the portico are made of stone, while the pavement under the portico is made of concrete, with the exception of the band at the bases of the columns, made of stone. The space between the access door and the second internal door to the Institute is paved in stone, with a central concrete frame. The atrium is made of stone tiles
Architectural barriers: the entrance is separated from street level by a low step (5 centimetres) that allows access to the landing under the portico in front of the façade. Continuing north along Via Cantù, the rise of the step progressively increases; at the entrance to the church of S. Cecilia and to the next door, this step is divided into two lower ones to facilitate access. There is a very low stone threshold at the entrance door. To reach the first floor, where the collection of scientific instruments is located, there is a wide staircase of low stone steps; an elevator is also available (with a key that can be requested)
Access: it is accessed from the main entrance in via Cesare Cantù 57, to the left (looking at the façade) of the door to S. Cecilia.
Services: Car park in via Auguadri (800 parking spaces); urban and suburban bus stops available in the area outside the walled city; ATMs in via Giulini, via Milano-corner Piazza Vittoria; public toilets in the underpass of Viale Spallino; pharmacy in via Cesare Cantù. Municipal Library of Como in Piazzetta Venosto Lucati
Leisure and Catering: bars, cafes and shops of various kinds in the area; small public garden between Viale Spallino and Via Milano
Other information: pedestrian area with limited traffic. For information on visiting the physics collection, please contact the Institute’s secretariat, tel. 031.261498 (Monday to Friday 10.30-12.30; Saturday 10.00-12.00)

Description
(Paola Corradi)

In Napoleonic times, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Gymnasium of Como (where Alessandro Volta had been professor of Experimental Physics from 1775 to 1778) was transferred from its original location, next to the church of the Gesù, to the former convent of the Augustinian nuns of S. Cecilia, suppressed in 1798. In the same building, following the law on public education of September 1802, with the school year 1803-1804 a new “sub-university” school had also been established, called in 1810 “Liceo dipartimentale del Lario”. The renovation of the rooms of the old convent to adapt them to new needs had already been entrusted to the architect Simone Cantoni in 1804. Cantoni himself designed the Benzi Room, built to house the libraries from the College of Doctors, the Jesuit College and other collections of the ecclesiastical foundations suppressed by the Austrians and French. This rich book heritage will come to constitute the first nucleus of the Municipal Library of Como. In 1816 the elegant neoclassical façade was completed, embellished with a portico with eight cipollino marble columns with Corinthian bases and capitals from the former baptistery of S. Giovanni in Atrio, in turn probably recovered from an older Roman building. The work of adaptation continued in the following years with Biagio Magistretti, a teacher in the same school. In 1838, following a government circular from the Austrian Viceroy Raineri, the Technological Cabinet of experimental physics and natural sciences was established, which also included the endowment of the Royal Gymnasium and the rich collections left to the school by Canon Giulio Cesare Gattoni a few decades earlier. In the years 1845-1846 Alessandro Volta’s sons, Zanino and Luigi, donated to the Lyceum a certain number of instruments invented and used by their father; these “relics” were repeatedly requested by the Municipality of Como for its Museum, where they were finally delivered in 1897; however, most of them were destroyed during the fire that devastated the great Volta Exhibition of 1899. The school also hosted a Botanical Garden, created by Giuseppe Comolli, a teacher at the Lyceum from 1809 to 1817. In 1851, following the new Austrian regulations, the merger of the Gymnasium and the Lyceum into the new Gymnasium was arranged; they were again separated eight years later, following political upheavals, but in 1877 the two courses were definitively reunited. In 1865 the Institute was named after Alessandro Volta, to commemorate the scientist’s presence at the Royal Gymnasium. From the 2015-2016 school year, the Liceo Classico was joined by the Liceo Scientifico. Already in 1832, in the Aula magna (Grand’Aula) of the school, a marble bust of the great physicist had been inaugurated, the work of Gaetano Monti, donated by Francesco Mocchetti, teacher of the Liceo and former pupil and admirer of Volta; in 1834 the bust was moved to the atrium, where it can still be seen today. The “A. Volta” High School preserves a valuable collection of scientific instruments from the times of Volta, that was already part of the first Technological Cabinet of experimental physics and natural sciences. In the years 1998-2003 the collection was carefully restored thanks to the contribution of the Provincial Administration of Como and the Cariplo Foundation and was given a worthy layout thanks to the work of teachers Elettra Coen and Loredana Mattalia with the architect Darko Pandakovic. The oldest instruments date back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century, while the largest group is dated to the first half of the nineteenth century. The objects in the showcases concern the most diverse fields of physics: from mechanics to astronomy, from optics to acoustics, up to calorimetry, fluid dynamics, electricity, magnetism. Among the devices preserved in the “Games” section, it is interesting to remember the so-called “Moretto”. Already indicated in the inventories of 1807 as “a statue indicating a Turk with a flammable air lamp“, it is mentioned in some writings by Volta himself: “A friend of mine here in Como [probably Giulio Cesare Gattoni]… he has also built a statue, and placed it on the shelf of a ladder, the copperhead of which is a bomb, and which carries a pistol in his hand, etc.” and “It is not possible to tell you how many very curious experiments I have already made, and how many more can be done with this gun by means of the electric spark. Imagine what was the stupor of many spectators, in whose presence I set fire to the pistol with the tip of my finger (after having been electrified on the stool). … But what made them startle above all was the excitement of the disengagement of the gun at a distance from the machine that was being played.” The Lyceum also houses an interesting museum of Natural History (1847), already part of the first Technological Cabinet, enriched over the years with purchases and donations from citizens. There are over ten thousand artifacts including numerous specimens of birds and other stuffed animals (notably the two-headed calf), a remarkable collection of shells, an entomological collection, a very rich nineteenth-century herbarium containing specimens of plants from Como, Lecco and Valtellina, collected and classified by the priest Pietro Ronchetti, as well as a collection of fossil fish from Monte Bolca, some fossils from the ichthyotic schists of Perledo and about two thousand samples of minerals and rocks.

Contacts
Liceo Classico e Scientifico “A. Volta”, via Cesare Cantù 57, Como; Tel. 031.261498; copc020007@istruzione.it; http://www.liceovoltacomo.gov.it/
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403;; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

 To find out more: Website of the “Alessandro Volta” High School http://www.liceovoltacomo.gov.it/il-liceo-a-volta/60-il-museo-di-scienze.html
Website of the architect Darko Pandakovic http://www.studiopandakovic.it/progettazione/museografia/interventi-museografici/liceo-volta-galleria-collez/index.html
Tourist website of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/musei/altri-musei/museo_scienze_liceo_volta/index.html
Site dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/liceo-ginnasio-volta/ and http://alessandrovolta.it/musei-e-mostre/musei-permanenti/museo-del-liceo-volta-como/
 Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Other references: E. Coen, L. Mattalia, La collezione museale di strumenti di fisica del Liceo Classico “A. Volta” di Como, Provincia di Como, Liceo Classico “A. Volta” Como, Como 2002.
The Physics Cabinet of the A. Volta Classical High School in Como. Reflections on the didactic-scientific culture of the late eighteenth century, Editoriale Lombarda, Como 2003.

S. Donnino

Information
Location: the church of S. Donnino is located in Via Diaz in Como
Paving: Via Diaz is made of porphyry tiles with side bands paved in stone; the steps leading to the churchyard and the churchyard itself are made of stone slabs
Architectural barriers: the small churchyard in front (not protected on the front side) is accessed by a wide central staircase of 11 steps, flanked on both sides by iron handrails. The staircase (from the third step), however, is normally closed by a low iron gate. Inside the church you enter by surmounting two other stone steps. Vestibule doors allow entry to the church.
Services: parking not available inside the walled city (except at the Arena in via Vincenzo Bellini 21); urban and suburban bus stops outside the walled city; pharmacy in via Cesare Cantù. Municipal Library of Como in Piazzetta Venosto Lucati
Leisure and Catering: in front of the church stands Palazzo Volpi, home of the Civic Art Gallery; bars, cafes and shops of various kinds in the area
Other information: pedestrian area with limited traffic. The church depends on the Parish Community of the Walled City (tel. 031.267295), which can be contacted for information. Currently (2025) the church has become the seat of the ‘Chaplaincy’ for the faithful who belong to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

Description
(Alberto Rovi)

Artificially raised above street level for reasons not yet clarified by archaeological investigations, it is dedicated to the soldier martyr – condemned to beheading – whose remains are venerated in Fidenza. The cult of the Saint from Fidenza radiated to central-northern Italy, and reached Como, indirectly confirming the destiny of our city as a stage on the pilgrimage route to Rome. The neoclassical lines of the façade (1813) are the work of the main collaborator of the renowned Simone Cantoni, the architect Carlo Polti, who defined the advanced body of the narthex with Ionic semi-columns and an emerging tympanum. The lunette that gives light to the single nave bears a stained glass window depicting San Donnino by Eugenio Rossi, author of similar post-war works in the two oldest side chapels, near the main altar, dedicated to the Crucifix (frescoes by Gian Domenico Caresana, 1619-1620) and to the Virgin (frescoes by Fiammenghino, early ‘600, as well as the frescoes on the vault and the side painting of the Assumption – formerly an altarpiece,  facing onto  the Nativity of Mary by Ludovico Pogliaghi, 1888). The polychrome wooden statue of the titular saint (Ezekiel Trombetta, late 1800s) is placed in a niche in the rectilinear apse wall enlarged by an effective trompe l’oeil by Giuseppe Coduri Vignoli (early 1800s) developed around the eighteenth-century Moses and Elijah by Francesco Silva. The Baroque altarpiece has recently been recovered. Pilasters in glossy stucco of warm intonation solemnly mark the nave, surmounted by a bright barrel vault with stuccoes in the style of Angelo Menolli (1937), and opened by two other chapels, immediately beyond the narthex: the most recent dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, with a recent wooden statue and frescoes by Chiesa (1836-1837), the richest,  on the left, under the patronage of the Volpi who lived in the building opposite, now the Pinacoteca: frescoes in the vault by Antonio Crespi known as Bustino (1675) within stuccoes by Giovanni Battista Barberini (1662), altar by Francesco Rusca da Campione (1630), refined marble incrustations on the walls (1647-1658), altarpiece by an unknown artist with St. Dominic and St. Philip Neri adoring the Child Jesus entrusted by the Virgin to St. Anthony of Padua.

Two significant sculptures are the small ancient group of the Pietà in the left passage between the narthex and the nave and the Crucifix, a gift from Zaragoza, kept in the sacristy, traditionally linked to the story of the rescue of a crucifix from the Turks narrated by a painting, also in the sacristy, where a painting by Gian Domenico Caresana is also preserved,  St. Francis in adoration of the Crucifix (1610) adapted to the wardrobe.

In the church of S. Donnino, the future inventor of the battery was baptized on February 19, 1745, by the provost Moiana with the names of Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio. A plaque, placed on the second centenary of Volta’s birth (1945) at the baptismal font, shows the text of the baptismal certificate.

Volta often frequented S. Donnino, near his ancestral home, where he taught catechism. In this regard, Callisto Grandi wrote: “Almost every Sunday […] he, in a corner of the church of S. Donnino, is surrounded by a multitude of young men all intent on learning from his lips the catechism, which he masterfully teaches them. There is neither subservience nor severity in Volta, it is all goodness and sweet persuasion; rather than a very experienced teacher, he appears as a father in the midst of his children and with a thousand ways he captivates their love, docility, attention […] Young people flocked to it in large numbers […] The Volta doctrine class was the most crowded and often many did not find a place there!”. On a pillar on the right of the entrance a plaque commemorates: “Here baptized, / Alessandro Volta / felt the greatness of faith / and teaching the catechism to children / he prepared, with the miracle of the torch, / to transform the face of the world”. Also, the funeral rite of the physicist was celebrated in the church of S. Donnino, on March 7, 1827. (S.F.)

Contacts
Parish Community of the Walled City via Vittorio Emanuele II 94, Como; Tel. 031.267295; comosanfedele@gmail.com; www.parrocchiasanfedelecomo.it
The church of San Donnino has now become the seat of the ‘Chaplaincy’ for the faithful who belong to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more:
Website of the Parish of S. Fedele
Website dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/chiesa-di-san-donnino/
Website dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Former Jesuit College

Information
Location: via Lambertenghi
Paving: the street and the square are made of porphyry tiles with two side bands paved in stone
Services: parking not available inside the walled city (except at the Arena in via Vincenzo Bellini 21); urban and suburban bus stops outside the walled city. Municipal Library of Como in Piazzetta Venosto Lucati
Leisure and Catering: bars, cafes and shops of various kinds in the area
Other information: pedestrian area with limited traffic. The structure currently houses the Vincentian Fathers’ festive soup kitchen, a Vincentian Family Home, the Open Door offices of the diocesan Caritas, a kitchen service for refugees also from Caritas and the cloakroom service managed by the Conferences of St. Vincent

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

Since the second half of the sixteenth century the Jesuits had opened a college at their convent next to the church of SS. Felice and Amanzio (church of the Gesù) that dealt with the education of the young people of the city aristocracy. Two centuries later, the young Alessandro Volta also studied in this college: from 1758 to 1760 he attended the “School of Rhetoric” and began that of Philosophy, attracting the attention of a Jesuit father, Father Gerolamo Bonesi, who tried to convince him to enter the Society of Jesus. But his paternal uncle Don Alessandro, who followed his education after his father’s death, withdrew him from the Jesuits and enrolled him in the Benzi Seminary. When, a few years later, in 1773, the Society of Jesus was suppressed, the government, in order not to deprive the city of the prestigious educational institute, immediately arranged to acquire the College and to continue lessons as early as the school year 1774-1775, transforming it into the Royal Gymnasium. Here were held the classes of Grammar, Humanity and Rhetoric; after some uncertainties, the chairs of Logic and Metaphysics, Experimental Physics, Geometry, Natural Law and Moral Philosophy were reactivated, which derived partly from the higher courses created by the Jesuits in their Institute, and partly from the chairs founded in the College of Doctors. As early as 1774 Alessandro Volta had been appointed Regent of the Schools of Como, making himself distinguished for his analytical evaluation of and his proposals for improving public education, thus demonstrating his concern to promote culture and education for young people. In 1755 he was assigned the chair of Experimental Physics in the Royal Gymnasium, which he held until his transfer to the University of Pavia in 1778. In this role, Volta worked hard to create a library endowment to be made available to students, but above all by laying the foundations for organizing a Physics Cabinet, procuring instruments on loan, buying or building them personally or through artisans (“the local barometer makers”), also taking care of finding the necessary funds. This Cabinet was to be at the same time a valuable teaching tool for the students (he believed that the teaching of physics should be engaging, useful and enjoyable at the same time, based on concrete experiences), but also a functional place for the scientist’s research. At the same time as the design of the laboratory, Volta introduced important educational innovations including public demonstrations of physics experiences held by students in Italian. In the Napoleonic era, the Royal Gymnasium of Como was transferred to the former monastery of the Augustinian nuns of S. Cecilia; from the school year 1803-1804 the first city high school had also been established in the same building. In 1851 the Gymnasium was merged with the Lyceum into the new Gymnasium-Lyceum (lasting eight years). In 1865 the institute was named after Alessandro Volta, to commemorate the presence of the scientist at the Royal Gymnasium.

Contacts
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

Monument to Alessandro Volta

Information
Location: the monument to Alessandro Volta is located in Piazza Volta in Como
Paving: Piazza Volta is paved with granulated concrete, with inserts of porphyry tiles, stone slabs and stone cubes
Architectural barriers: care must be taken because the square is not flat, but has differences in height with variations in pavement created during the last arrangement of the street furniture
Services: Car park in via Rubini; bus stops nearby; pharmacy in via Garibaldi; ATMs in via Rubini
Leisure and Catering: in the area there are bars, cafes, restaurants and shops. Benches are situated all around the monument
Other information: pedestrian zone with limited traffic

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

In 1838 a monument dedicated to the great physicist was inaugurated in Piazza Iasca (later named after Alessandro Volta). The statue portrays the scientist in an upright position near the battery; it is the work of Pompeo Marchesi, one of the most famous sculptors of the time. The massive base, decorated with plant festoons, plumes, eagles and roundels with bas-reliefs depicting some famous Volta’s inventions, is by Francesco Durelli; a simple dedication is engraved on it: “A Volta – la Patria”. On the 1999-2000 celebrations, the Municipality of Como proceeded to enhance the square through the reconstruction of the pavement, the redesign of the street furniture and greenery, as well as the creation of special lighting.

Contacts
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Tourist site of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/monumenti/monumenti-fino-900/statua_alessandro_volta/index.html
Site dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/monumento-e-piazza/
Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

“Giosuè Carducci” Institute and “The Hall of the Nobel Prize Winners”

Information
Location : The “Giosuè Carducci” Institute is in Como in Viale Cavallotti 5 and 7
Paving: the sidewalk along the avenue is made of grit concrete tiles (edged on the sides by two bands of porphyry tiles), while at the entrances there are bands of porphyry tiles. Beyond the low concrete fence wall, surmounted by an iron gate and opened by iron gates, at number 5 a porphyry tile driveway precedes an area in grit concrete bordered by a stone band below the portico, while at number 7 a narrow concrete band precedes the stone step of access to the interior
Architectural barriers: An elevator is available to reach the first floor, where the Sala del Museo Didattico is located.
Access: the building at number 5 is accessed through an iron and glass door
Services: parking available in the area (viale Varese); Multi-storey car park in via Rubini; city and suburban bus stops nearby; pharmacy in via Garibaldi; ATMs in Via Rubini
Leisure and Catering: bars in the area; public gardens in Viale Varese
Other information: the “Guido Casartelli” Museum in the Sala dei Nobel (Hall of the Nobel’s) can be visited independently by appointment at the secretariat of the “Giosuè Carducci” association, tel. 031.267365 (Monday to Friday, 9.00 a.m.-3.00 p.m.)

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

The “Giosuè Carducci” Institute was erected on the initiative of Enrico Musa with a project by the architect Cesare Mazzocchi. The building, with a triangular plan, inaugurated on September 20, 1910, was the seat of the “Pro Cultura Popolare” Association, founded in 1903 by a group of moderate democratic intellectuals from Como, including Musa himself, to promote the culture of the working classes. After ten years, the spaces were enlarged with the construction of a new adjoining building with a U-shaped plan, connected to the first by a small portico with a terraced roof. The complex was also equipped with a large garden equipped with a vegetable garden and enriched with valuable plants and recreational environments, including a pond with a bridge and a cave with an aquarium (which became part of the municipal zoo from 1937 to 1987). On the whole, a lot of very successful initiatives of the Association were held, such as technical, commercial, but also artistic and cultural training courses. The Institute was the seat of a Library for adults and a Library for children, two Popular High Schools, a Music Library, a School of Musical Culture, a School of Decorative Art, a Shorthand Classroom, a School for Housewives named after Romualdo Borletti (associated with the well-known sewing machine factory) and a nursery school where the Montessori method was applied. Above all, a small but very peculiar museum was established. The idea of a circulating Science Museum (or school museum) came to the president/founder of the Carducci institute Enrico Musa in 1917, following the example of the Swiss school organization that rented auxiliary educational material to various school groups. He therefore decided to commission a specialized Parisian company, Maison Deyrolle, to create a complete miniature modelling and visual equipment for the teaching of all the scientific subjects included in the curricula of middle school and technical institutes, including seven sectors (Physics, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Natural History, Hygiene, Philately, Numismatics, Technology and Commodities). This teaching kit, which could be used by teachers to make their lessons more effective, was placed in special containers to make it easy to transport and then make them available to those who needed them. The catalogue of the museum’s teaching materials was published in 1922, and the loan of teaching materials became active from 1923. Musa also adapted a large room in the new wing of the Carducci building (built in 1920) as a study room, furnishing it with large cupboards with glass doors and large drawers, to house all the teaching material and named the room, according to the custom of the Institute, in memory of Guido Casartelli (1864-1915), former vice-president of the Carducci Institute. To make the appearance of the place more attractive, Musa commissioned the painter Achille Zambelli (Vigevano 1876-Gravedona 1963) to fresco the walls and ceiling with images reproducing part of the content of the educational collection, with special reference to animals and nature. The composition included some medallions with portraits of protagonists of Como culture, but things went differently, due to an important event, the International Congress of Physicists held from 12 to 17 September 1927, organized by the Municipality of Como on the Voltian Year, to celebrate the first centenary of Volta’s death. Twelve Nobel Prize winners participated in the congress, including Guglielmo Marconi (1909 Prize), Max Planck (1918 Prize) and Niels Bohr (1922 Prize). Among the participants there were also very young scientists, including Enrico Fermi, future “boy from Via Panisperna” and in turn future Nobel Laureate. To commemorate the exceptional event, their names were written in four medallions, erasing the images already imprinted previously. From that moment on, the Casartelli Room was called the “Hall of the Nobel Prize winners” and remained inextricably linked to the memory of the Voltian Year. After careful restoration, it continues to keep and exhibit in the original cabinets all the extraordinary educational material commissioned by Enrico Musa and now used exclusively for museum use». Following the financial crisis, in 1929 Pro Cultura decided to sell the headquarters of the Institute to the Municipality, which transformed it into the Fascist Institute of Culture, in cohabitation with the Magistral Institute, which occupied most of the classrooms. Currently, the most recent building of the institute has become the headquarters of the Faculty of Law of the University of Insubria; the other building, the oldest one, still houses the headquarters of the “Giosuè Carducci” Association, heir to the “Pro Cultura Popolare”.

(Taken from the website of the Iubilantes association www.memorieinfoto.it)

Contacts
Associazione Giosuè “Carducci” Viale Cavallotti 7, tel. 031.267365
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Iubilantes website “Memories in photos” https://www.memorieinfoto.it/percorso/como-istituto-giosu%C3%A8-carducci

The Voltaic Exhibition of 1899

Information
Location: the Voltaic Exhibition of 1899 was organized in the area currently occupied by the Municipal Gardens near the lake.

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

In 1899 the city of Como commemorated the physicist Alessandro Volta on the centenary of the invention of the voltaic battery with a great Exhibition, able to rival the Universal Expositions held in large European and American cities. The Como engineer Eugenio Linati designed a vast exhibition area in the area currently occupied by the Municipal Gardens near the lake, covering an exhibition area of about 15,000 square meters. The main idea of his project was to create a single pavilion that would allow a continuous visit, always indoors, of the objects on display: from Volta’s memorabilia to new technical discoveries, to the most refined products of the silk industry for which Como was famous. The main façade of the central pavilion, facing the city, was built in Empire style, with reference to the time of Alessandro Volta. At the ends of the loggia rose two tall towers in the form of an electric battery; in one of the two there was a very modern elevator, reaching a belvedere from which you could enjoy an unprecedented view of the city. Separated from the rest of the exhibition was the art pavilion, where numerous examples of historical artistic styles, chosen from the masterpieces scattered throughout the territory, were presented together with contemporary artists. The Voltaic Exhibition, the first in unified Italy, was a great success; it was visited by the main political authorities of the time, including King Umberto I, accompanied by his wife Margherita and the heir to the throne Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples, with his spouse, Elena from Montenegro. The pavilions were flanked by a series of promotional initiatives: specially designed posters, countless celebratory postcards, rallies (such as the International Congress of Telegraphists, the National Congress of Electricians, the General Assemblies of the Italian Electrotechnical Association and the Italian Physical Society) and social outings. Particular attention was paid to music: Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest musicians of the time, composed a march significantly entitled Electric Shock, while Lorenzo Perosi granted the world premiere of his oratorio Il Natale del Redentore to the city of Como. On July 8, 1899, however, a furious fire, provoked by a cigarette butt, completely destroyed, in less than an hour, the pavilions of the exhibition including the shed that housed the first examples registered in the Como tramway network, with the exception of the artistic pavilion, due to its isolated location. However, many relics were recovered. A subscription was immediately opened for the reconstruction of the exhibition in which King Umberto I also participated. Based on a project by the architect Linati, the reconstruction was completed in a month and was reopened on 20 August 1899. 
With the great Voltaic Exhibition of 1899, the history of electric lighting began in Como. In that year the Baragiola brothers, owners of the Grand Hotel Plinius, were the first to equip the hotel and their homes with electric lighting systems. In the following year the Comense Electric Company “A. Volta” was established, in which the main entrepreneurs of the area participated.

Read more:Wikipedia https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrazioni_voltianeSito dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/celebrazioni-voltiane/1899-100-anni-dalla-pila/

To find out more about the other city events in honour of Alessandro Volta:Wikipedia https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrazioni_voltianeSito dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/celebrazioni-voltiane/
Iubilantes website “Memories in photos” https://www.memorieinfoto.it/percorso/lesposizione-voltiana-del-1899

“The Life Electric”

Information
Location: the monument “The Life Electric” is located at the end of the “Pietro Caldirola” breakwater, in Como
Paving: the breakwater is made of porphyry tiles (with a small interruption of 10 meters in concrete after about 60 meters from the beginning). The widening at the end of the dam is also made of porphyry tiles with white grit concrete bands
Architectural barriers: –
Access: the monument is accessed from the “Pietro Caldirola” breakwater
Services: –
Leisure and Catering: bar in the public gardens
Other information: the breakwater is protected on both sides by railings 1.20 meters high

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

At the end of the breakwater that extends into the first basin of Lake Como, in front of Piazza Cavour, stands the last monument built in chronological order (2015) to honour Alessandro Volta: “The Life Electric”, designed by the Polish naturalized American architect Daniel Libeskind, and donated to the city by the association “Friends of Como” and the “Como Tourist Consortium”, supported by the Municipality of Como and numerous sponsors. It is a steel structure, about 13.75 meters high, which has the shape of two sinusoids that face each other and play with each other between curves and movement; as Libeskind himself wrote: “it is inspired by the electric voltage between two poles of a battery, Volta’s great gift to humanity. The form of the installation is pivotal in my constant research on the architectural representation of energy. The work joins the elements: light, wind and water. An installation, a physical and ideal gateway open to the twenty-first century.” The monument is placed above a circular fountain about one meter high and surrounded by a white grained concrete seat. The biodynamically variable LED lighting, the subject of careful design, creates plays of light with extraordinary optical effects designed to be as amazing as they are delicate. The effect of the light sources reflecting in the lake merges with that created by a water misting system, to make the work appear as if suspended on a cloud.

Contacts

Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Monument website http://www.lifeelectric.it/
Tourist site of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/monumenti/monumenti-dal-900/life-electric/index.html
Website of the Municipality of Como http://www.comune.como.it/it/progetti-home/life-elettric.html
Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Read more about Daniel Libeskind: Daniel Libeskind’s website http://libeskind.com/
Daniel Libeskind on Wikipedia https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Libeskind

The Voltaic Temple

Information
Location: the Voltaic Temple is in Viale Marconi 1 in Como
Paving: around the Temple there is a two-meter circular band of granite cubes, which encloses, one on each side, four green flowerbeds. The steps of the two access stairs to the vestibule are made of granite. The floor of the vestibule is made of stone slabs. The rich floor of the round hall and the smaller rooms is a mosaic of marble and different stones
Architectural barriers: the circular band of granite cubes around the Temple is bordered by a wrought iron chain supported by pillars one meter high. The vestibule in front of the façade is accessed via two side staircases of fifteen low steps; the landing is protected on the front side by three stone parallelepipeds that occupy the space between the four columns. The door leads into a small atrium about 80 centimetres deep, closed at the bottom by another iron and glass door with two leaves
Access: access from the entrance in Viale Marconi 1
Services: parking available in the adjacent areas
Leisure and Catering: bar in the area; public garden
Other information: the Volta Temple is part of the Museum System of the City of Como. It can be visited from Tuesday to Sunday; for timetables and costs see the website of the Civic Museums of Como http://museicivici.comune.como.it/index.php?page=tempio-voltiano

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

On the occasion of the Second Voltaic Exhibition held at Villa Olmo to celebrate the centenary of Alessandro Volta’s death, the industrialist Francesco Somaini donated to the city the capital necessary for the construction of a place to honour the memory of the great physicist. The Volta Temple was designed by the architect Federico Frigerio in neoclassical style (in homage to the time when the scientist lived), partly inspired by the Pantheon in Rome and inaugurated in July 1928. This is how Frigerio himself described it in April 1926: “It is very simple in terms of planimetric layout and structure. It essentially consists of a circular hall of almost twelve meters in net diameter crowned by a dome with a central light, in the form of a Pantheon». It was made of reinforced concrete, covered on the outside with karst stone from Aurisina (like the tower of the nearby War Memorial, inaugurated in 1933) with decorations in Musso marble. It is preceded by a vestibule, accessed by two side staircases. The tympanum is adorned with a frieze, where geniuses hold a medallion with the profile of the scientist. On the sides of the entrance stand the two statues depicting Science and Faith, the work of Carlo and Luigi Rigola. Inside, four corner pillars and eight marble columns support the dome; in the rich entablature there is a frieze where  the dedicatory inscription in gilded bronze letters stands out. In the parapet band of the loggia there are four stucco high-relief panels, the work of Pietro Clerici, representing Episodes from the life of Volta; Between these reliefs, sixteen roundels bearing the most significant dates of his life alternate in pairs. On the ground floor it is possible to retrace Volta’s scientific itinerary, from his experiments on gases and thermal phenomena, to experiments in electricity and the battery, through the exhibition of a great variety of Volta’s apparatus, machines and instruments. They are mostly reconstructions, while just a few originals were saved from the fire that destroyed the Great Exhibition of 1899. In the upper loggia, on the other hand, the figure of Volta is presented through the story of his life, his relationships with his family, his ties with the city, the public offices and awards that were attributed to him, as well as the various celebrations in his honour after his death.

Contacts
Tempio Voltiano Viale Marconi 1, Como; Tel. 031.574705; musei.civici@comune.como.it 342.0076403; ufficioturismo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more:
Website of the Civic Museums of Como
Tourist website of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/musei/tempio_voltiano/index.html
Website dedicated to Alessandro Volta
Website dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Alessandro Volta’s country house in Campora

Information
Location: the building that was the country villa of Volta is located in via Campora 1 in Camnago Volta-Como
Paving: via Campora is paved; at the entrance gate to the property there is a stone strip, while the driveway to the house is partly paved in stone, partly lawn
Architectural barriers: –
Access: it can be accessed from via Campora or via Clerici, as the house is at the intersection of the two streets with via Ravanera
Services: the terminus of the city bus is right in front of the house, at which there is a fountain and a bench. A stone bench is also leaning against the garden fence wall, to the right of the entrance gate. ATM and shop in via della Pila
Leisure and Catering: two restaurants in the various hamlets of Camnago
Other information: the building is now used as private homes and therefore cannot be visited

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

The Volta family’s house was in the centre of Como, in the Contrada di Porta Nuova, but during his childhood Alessandro Volta spent a lot of time in the villa of Campora in Camnago, with an adjoining agricultural courtyard, and during the last years of his life he moved there in the spring and summer months. Maurizio Monti, in the Life of Alessandro Volta, contained in Memorie comensi. Writings collected for the Congress of Agronomists that was to take place in Como in the autumn of 1865 (1867) wrote: «In his youth, his villa was Campora, and he liked the less solitary residence of Lazzate. In Campora he gladly mingled with the peasants on the farm, in the farmyard and on the benches of the rustic kitchen. He told them about the strangest things in the world, showed them some experiments in physics, or proposed riddles. Lying down at the time of the grape harvest at their tables a little happier than usual, he ate macaroni, polenta, rice with them […] Tireless in his studies, he persevered for hours, forgetting food and rest; nor did he feel the impressions of heat and cold, although in other times he was jealous of them. Logical in the search for facts, exact to the point of scruple in evaluating and comparing them in the most minute circumstances“. Volta was also interested in agronomy: during his study trip to various centres of Switzerland, Alsace and Savoy in 1777, he saw in the small village of Aiguebelle, some peasants who were picking strange tubers, potatoes, imported to Europe after the discovery of America, but not yet widespread in Italy. Moved by curiosity, he wanted to try them, take them home (also showing them to his noblewoman friend Teresa Ciceri Castiglioni) and promoted their cultivation, starting from his land in Camnago Volta. For her part, the physicist’s wife, Teresa Pellegrini, was a passionate breeder of silkworms on the estates of Campora and Lazzate and the scientist himself had been interested in silk processing on several occasions. Campora was definitely Alessandro Volta’s favourite residence; in fact, he wrote, full of nostalgia, about this to his brother in 1781 while he was in Geneva for study reasons: “In Campora there will be our priests who will leaf through breviary and tobacco, and empty glasses, and after lunch we will climb together on the mountains among the chestnut hedges, the brambles of the brushwood..’. The villa that once belonged to Volta is now a private home; on the side of the entrance gate to the property, on the right, a plaque recalls: “It was this solitary house / the favourite autumn home / of / Alessandro Volta / in the 1st centenary of the invention of the battery”. Particularly striking is the large lime tree standing on the left side of the entrance gate.

Contacts
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Website dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/villa-di-campora/
Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Valley of the Cosia stream

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

The valley of the Cosia stream represents a varied mosaic of natural environments, dominated by the watercourse with its waterfalls, gorges, the famous “bottini” (also called the “potholes of the giants”), but also the woods, the meadows, alongside the remains that human activity has left over the centuries. This is one of those places “of memory”, where you can still breathe atmospheres “of the past”, quite unusual for an urban suburb. The Cosia stream originates from numerous springs located on the southern slopes of Mount Bolettone and flows into Lake Como. From a geological point of view, its valley is carved into sedimentary rock formations of marine origin dating back to the Jurassic, in some of which – such as the Rosso Ammonitico – fossils of ancient marine molluscs can be found. In more recent geological times, during the Quaternary era, the area was shaped by the action of glaciers and above all by the Cosia itself, which engraved and shaped the valley in which it flows. In particular, in the area below the village of Tavernerio, the stream has dug gorges up to 20 meters deep, imposing and scenic; on the steep escarpments it is still possible to read the traces left by the watercourse, which once flowed at higher altitudes than today. Another form of erosion visible along the course of the Cosia is that of the “potholes of the giants”, locally called “bottini“, or deep and smooth cavities, produced by the mechanical erosion exerted on the limestone rocks of the stream bed by the swirling rotary motion of sand and gravel carried by the current. These environments were most likely the scene of Volta’s first naturalistic discoveries as a child. His friend Giulio Cesare Gattoni wrote that “he then submerged himself in a spring of water in Monteverde to discover a vein of gold from which sections were detached as some peasants gave us to understand but he found only yellow mica leaves”. In the Cosia valley, despite growing anthropogenic pressure, especially towards its end, there are still several well-preserved natural environments, typical of the southern slopes of the Larian Triangle. The green mosaic ranges from hygrophilous forests to White Willow (Salix alba) and Black Alder (Alnus glutinosa), species that require high soil moisture, characteristic of the areas closest to watercourses; to the thermophilic forests of Downy Oak (Quercus pubescens), Hornbeam (Ostrya carpinifolia) and Manna ash (Fraxinus ornus), open and bright, typical of well-exposed south facing locations; to the mesophilous forests of Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), cool and shady accompanied by the Linden (Tilia platyphyllos) and the Oak (Quercus petraea); to the shady beech forests dominated by the Beech (Fagus sylvatica), characteristic of altitudes above 800 meters. At even higher altitudes we find large grasslands, carved over the centuries by man to provide hay for livestock and enlivened by colourful blooms of Daffodils (Narcissus poeticus, N. radiiflorus), Bluebells (Campanula sp), Wild Lilies (Lilium croceum, Lilium martagon); since  pastoral activity has been abandoned, these spaces tend to be gradually reconquered by pioneer thickets of Birch (Betula pendula) and Hazelnut (Corylus avellana), a prelude to an imminent return of the beech forest. It is also said that Volta, now mature, had become fond of a boy from Camnago, a certain Ambrogio Longatti, who assisted him in his scientific experiments on electricity in contrast with Galvani, making himself available to go and get him frogs that hid in the caves of the Cosia valley. In February 2017 the municipal councils of Tavernerio, Como and Albese con Cassano approved the agreement for the establishment and management of the Local Park of Supra-municipal Interest of the Cosia Valley, thanks also to the great awareness-raising work conducted for years by the association “La Città Possibile Como”.

To find out more: Tourist site of the Larian Triangle http://www.triangololariano.it/it/il-torrente-cosia-e-la-sua-valle.aspx
Blog dedicated to the Park by La Città Possibile Como http://parcodelcosia.blogspot.it/

Tomb of Alessandro Volta

Information
Location: the tomb of Alessandro Volta is in the centre of the old cemetery of Camnago Volta-Como, in via Clerici
Paving: via Clerici is paved; the widening facing the entrance to the cemetery is paved with porphyry cubes. The steps leading to the cemetery are made of stone; The landing at the top of the steps and the driveway leading to the temple are paved with stone tiles. The circular steps leading to the widening, on which the temple was built, are made of stone and so is the widening; the floor of the temple is paved as a mosaic
Architectural barriers: to access the cemetery you have to climb six steps; there are three more steps to access the circular widening where the temple is located
Access: the old cemetery of Camnago can be accessed from Via Clerici, passing through an electric wrought iron gate
Services: parking outside the new cemetery of Camnago, about eighty meters further coming from the centre; urban bus stop; ATM and shop in via della Pila
Leisure and Catering: in the various hamlets of Camnago there are two restaurants
Other information: for opening hours see the website of the Municipality of Como http://www.comune.como.it/it/servizi/cimiteri-e-funerali/cimiteri-luoghi-e-orari/

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

When Alessandro Volta died, on March 5, 1827, on his express wish, he was buried in a grave dug into the bare earth of the first cemetery of Camnago (then an autonomous municipality), located downstream of the road that connects the square in front of the church to Campora. The tomb, according to what Maurizio Monti writes in La Storia di Como (1832) “was distinguished by a wooden cross that bore the inscription: ‘Here lie the remains of Count Cavaliere Alessandro Volta, taken from the living on March 5, 1827, at the age of 82′”. This wish was dictated by the close bond that united the scientist to the small town where his favourite country house stood and where he used to spend the summer periods. His wife and children, however, wanted to give a more dignified burial to his remains, commissioning the temple that we can still see, inaugurated on March 5, 1831, around which the Municipality created a new cemetery. Some of the scientist’s family members are also buried in the temple. Designed by Melchiorre Nosetti in pure neoclassical style, the temple stands on a circular widening, accessed by three curved steps at the front. On the sides of the access, two stone plaque stands are resting on the steps that support two bronze plaques; the left one donated by “The Electrical students of England” in 1903 and the right one by the Catholic students in 1899. Other commemorative plaques are placed inside the cemetery. The structure, made of stone blocks, has a circular plan and is surmounted by a metal dome with a skylight. In the upper part it has a marble frieze with reliefs representing triumphal crowns and Volta’s inventions. On the sides of the entrance, surmounted by an architrave with the inscription in bronze letters “To Alessandro Volta / his widow and children”, two sandstone statues by Luigi Argenti have been placed: the one on the left depicts Faith praying, while the other represents Science crying. Inside, on the back wall, a niche houses the marble sarcophagus, the work of Giuseppe Bayer, surmounted by a bust of the scientist by Giovan Battista Comolli. Flanking the bust are two winged geniuses, one of whom is in the act of crowning Volta. In the panel above a relief stands out, depicting The presentation of the battery to Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris in 1801. The tomb of Alessandro Volta is a National Monument, based on a Decree of Vittorio Emanuele III of February 27, 1925.In 1999, the bicentenary of the discovery of the battery, restorations were carried out and at the entrance to the cemetery there were two artistic vintage street lamps running on methane, in honour of the scientist who was one of the first to discover the gas’s origin, which during the hours of darkness create a particular and suggestive lighting.

Contacts
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Tourist site of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/monumenti/monumenti-fino-900/tomba-di-volta/index.html
Site dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/tomba-di-camnago/
 Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

Church of S. Cecilia in Camnago Volta

Information
Location: the church of S. Cecilia is located in Piazza Martignoni 1, Camnago Volta-Como
Paving: Piazza Martignoni is paved in porphyry cubes, with a section of gravel parking (on the right entering from Via Franchi)
Architectural barriers: a few meters before the entrance to the church there are two concrete “panettone” pillars that are used to prevent vehicular access to the part closest to the sacred building. The main portal is preceded by a large, very low stone step; to access the inside of the church there is another higher step also in stone and then a low threshold
Access: access from Piazza Martignoni 1
Services: parking in Piazza Martignoni and in Piazzale don Serafino Pozzetti; city bus stop in via Vincenzo Franchi; ATM and shop in via della Pila
Leisure and Catering: two restaurants in the various hamlets of Camnago

Description
(Silvia Fasana)

In the acts of the pastoral visit made by Bishop Ninguarda at the end of the sixteenth century, the church of S. Cecilia was in the territory of the parish of San Donnino, but since it was far from it, it was entrusted to the care of the friars of the third order of San Francesco, resident in S. Donato. On 7 March 1654 Bishop Lazzaro Carafino erected it as a parish church. The church is the result of a series of successive alterations that have changed its appearance. Inside, the marble high altar is surmounted by an altarpiece depicting the patron saint Santa Cecilia with San Carlo Borromeo, already mentioned in 1631 in the Acts of the pastoral visit of Bishop Carafino. A curiosity: probably during the eighteenth century, the image of Borromeo was replaced with that of the more handsome St. Valerian, Roman soldier and husband of Cecilia; the original figure emerged during the restorations of 1992 and was restored. In the right side chapel (looking at the altar) is an oil painting on canvas of the Crucifixion, probably the work of an anonymous artist of the sixteenth century; the left chapel is dedicated to the Madonna del Rosario and houses a recent wooden statue (1952). Also worth mentioning are the confessional, the pulpit and the baroque wooden stalls of fine workmanship; the tabernacle, the lectern, the lamp holder and the bronze Via Crucis by Elio Ponti (as well as the back panel that crowns the statue of St. Joseph in the adjacent old Oratory), a large Crucifix also in bronze by Giovanni Tavani and the stained glass window on the façade by the local painter Franco Russolillo.

Contacts
Parish of S. Cecilia Piazza Martignoni 1, Camnago Volta-Como;
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

“Volta Walk”

Description
(Franca Ronchetti Bralla)

From Piazzale Don Serafino Pozzetti begins the so-called “Volta Walk”, a pedestrian and bicycle path with a slight and constant slope up to the hamlet of Solzago (a fraction of the municipality of Tavernerio) that retraces a stretch of the old Como-Erba-Lecco tram line, whose last run took place on May 11, 1956. This stretch of almost 2.8 kilometers, specially built in 1911 by flattening the ground to create a fast connection between Camnago Volta and Solzago, was abandoned to itself, so much so that the bridge made to cross the valley of the Bottini waterfall, located exactly on the border between the Municipalities of Como and Tavernerio, collapsed. So, the route was interrupted. Only in 1999 – forty-three years after the closure of the tram – thanks to a program agreement signed by the Municipality of Como, that of Tavernerio and the Association La Città Possibile Como, a new pedestrian bridge was built, in the same place as the original one, and was inaugurated on June 9, 2002. In addition, thanks to redevelopment and cleaning works, the stretch from Solzago to Camnago Volta was restored, thus creating the pleasant Volta Walk, immersed in the greenery of the Cosia valley, in the footsteps of the old tram and of the famous Como scientist Alessandro Volta, whose tomb stands nearby. Walking along the “Volta Walk”, the attentive eye notices details, sometimes partially hidden by vegetation, that remind us why that wide path was born: the stone walls on the sides, the vintage metal parapets, the arches of some bridges … There are no tracks anymore, but otherwise everything is more or less as it used to be. One still seems to hear the voice of the Honourable Carcano, when on May 8, 1912, speaking on the inaugural tram ride, said: “It is the most beautiful line in Italy, both because it links Como with the fertile Brianza countryside, and because it borders on the tomb of the great scientist Alessandro Volta…”.

Contacts
Parish of S. Cecilia Piazza Martignoni 1, Camnago Volta-Como;
Info Point Broletto, Via Pretorio, Como; Tel. 031.304137; infopointcomo@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/
Info Point San Giovanni Railway Station Piazzale San Gottardo 1, Como; Mobile  342.0076403; info.stazionefs@comune.como.it; http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/

To find out more: Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/

S. Andrea in Brunate

Information
Location: the church of S. Andrea, parish church of Brunate, is located in the town centre, on a large square with a splendid view, not far from the funicular station
Paving: the churchyard is mainly made of stone cubes; the steps at the side entrance are made of stone; the floor inside the vestibule is made of mosaic stone.
Architectural barriers: Five steps lead to the side entrance; the vestibule has a right side opening
Access: the church is generally accessed from the side portal
Services: not far from the church there is the Como – Brunate funicular station. The parking spaces available are few and almost all for residents. ATM and Pharmacy in Via Pietro e Maurizio Monti
Leisure and Catering: the Funicular itself is an opportunity for recreation. Bars, trattorias and restaurants in the area

Description
(Alberto Rovi e Ambra Garancini)

The church of S. Andrea, originally the home of an Augustinian female monastery renowned for the personalities of the blessed Maddalena Albrici (1390-1465) and the legendary Santa Guglielma, has a grandiose concrete façade modelled in eclectic lines, designed by Engineer  Stampa as part of the expansion (1927-1932) which redefined the religious space by enlarging it into a pseudo-octagonal shape, and concluding it with an airy dome, enclosed in an octagonal lantern. In the dome there is a fresco of the Glory of Saints by Raffaele Albertella (1934), who also painted the Symbols of the Evangelists in the pendentives that support the dome itself and, in the elongated sails that enclose them, the Nativity, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Devotional subjects are placed on the four major pillars: St. Joseph, The Guardian Angel, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, St. Agnes. In addition to the classical marble angels-stoups (1937-1938). On the right side is the tombstone of Maddalena Albrici (early sixteenth century), similar in quality to Rodari’s works in Como’s Cathedral, already dispersed, but recovered by the architect Piero Clerici. The right side chapel (1936) is dedicated to the Blessed, which contrasts with the side entrance to the church, framed by a beautiful Baroque stone portal, formerly the main portal of the ancient church that was renovated in 1676. The presbytery and the two side chapels that precede it – carrying traces of seventeenth-century paintings, minimal in the one on the right dedicated to the Madonna of the Rosary, still substantial in the one in front (Stories of St. Vincent Ferrer) – remain rededicated to the Sacred Heart (canvas by C. C. Tagliabue, 1932, within a multilinear marble frame, early eighteenth century), with a statue of the dead Christ under the canteen. The vault above the intermediate space, which connects the presbytery and nave, bears a Glory of St. Maurice between lunettes with scenes of monastic virtue (Felice Gennari da Palestrina, 1890). But an even older fragment, from the late 1400s, depicts, according to popular devotion, Santa Guglielma, identified by a local tradition with the legendary figure of an English princess and queen of Hungary, an exile and miracle worker in Brunate, who was never recognised as a saint by the Church. Another interpretation identifies the Saint with Guglielma called “la Boema”, or “di Milano” (thirteenth century) historically active in Chiaravalle Milanese as a religious reformer, who died in a sanctimonious spirit and burned post-mortem, so that the disappearance of her remains would prevent the spread of the heresy professed by her followers. At the feet a nun and a devotee are kneeling, mostly interpreted as Blessed Maddalena Albrici and the commissioner of the painting. Those who identify Guglielma di Brunate with the “Bohemian”, instead, interpret the two characters as Maifreda da Pirovano and Andrea Saramita, the two most important followers of the “Bohemian”. Be that as it may, and given that at the moment no historical document proves the identification with Guglielma the Bohemian, the effigy of the legendary and mysterious Santa Guglielma was for centuries – and until the second post-war period – the destination of a “pilgrimage of milk”: in fact, mothers and pregnant women came to it, especially from nearby Brianza, to ask for protection during and after childbirth and in particular for the gift of milk for their children.

The frescoes in the presbytery are by Gian Paolo Recchi and his nephews Raffaele and Carlo (1679-1682), restored by Leonardo Camporini (1998/1999): they represent a plastic Annunciation flanking the ancient apse window, recovered with the afore mentioned restoration (architect Darko Pandakovìc), the Glory of Saints Andrew and Maurice on the vault, in the lunettes (another recovery) the Martyrdom of St. Maurice, on the right, and Sant ‘Andrea, opposite, almost lost. In the four pendentives you can recognize the medals with St. Michael the Archangel, St. Bartholomew, Blessed Maddalena Albrici.

On the left side of the church (looking at the façade) two marble plaques recall: “Here / in Brunate / lived / at the nurse and in childhood / Alessandro Volta / with Elisabetta Pedraglio / whose husband Lodovico Monti / maker of barometers / infused him with his first love / of science / which gave him / the battery” (the text of which would have been attributed to Maurizio Monti) and “Brunate / homeland of the Monti children/ Maurizio historian Pietro philologist / to Alessandro Volta / who in these balsamic auras /  opened the mind / discoverer of the battery / in the first centenary / D.D.” (S.F.)

Contacts
Parish of Brunate Piazza della Chiesa 2, Brunate; Tel. 031.220216

To find out more: Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/
Site of the Municipality of Brunate http://www.comune.brunate.co.it

The church of S. Andrea on the site: https://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/architetture/schede/CO250-00738/

Volta Lighthouse

Information
Location: the lighthouse stands on Mount Tre Croci, in a panoramic position, overlooking the lake
Paving: the avenue and the steps of the access staircase are made of porphyry cubes; the square on which the lighthouse stands is paved in stone
Architectural barriers: to access the square on which the lighthouse stands there is a staircase of 69 steps. Inside the lighthouse 143 steps lead to the top to admire the view
Services: paid parking; Brunate – CAO line bus terminus
Leisure and catering: restaurants and bed and breakfasts in the surrounding area
Other information: for opening hours and costs see the website of the Municipality of Brunate http://www.comune.brunate.co.it/c013032/zf/index.php/servizi-aggiuntivi/index/index/idservizio/20009/idtesto/43
WARNING: access to the interior of the Lighthouse is closed at present (2026), waiting for restoration works.

Description
(Lorenzo Marazzi)

The lighthouse, 29 meters high, was built in 1927, to commemorate the centenary of the death of the scientist Alessandro Volta. The initiative was taken by the Institute for National and International Competitions among the Post-Telegraph workers, but then, for financial reasons, it passed to the Institute of Postal Receivers. The project was by the engineer Gabriele Giussani, who chose Monte Tre Croci, in San Maurizio, above Brunate, as the most suitable place. It was chosen because it is overlooking Como and can be seen not only from the first two basins of the lake, but also from the Po Valley and Brianza. The choice, however, was not appreciated by the inhabitants of Moltrasio, on the western shore of the lake, who protested because the alternation of the tricolour light beams with which the lighthouse was equipped disturbed them at night. Once built, the Lighthouse was donated to the city of Como; the Municipality is still its owner. The burden of management was the cause of long discussions and for some time they charged for admission, with the result of a rapid decrease in the number of visitors. For several years the Lighthouse was turned off and the degradation of the building and the surrounding environment increased rapidly. With the rapid progress in the field of communications, the building was reduced to a convenient “base” for antennas of various types and in 1974 it was disfigured by a satellite television antenna, fortunately removed shortly after. Between 1961 and 1965 the Como Tourist Board carried out restoration work; in 2015, thanks to the intervention of the Rotary Club of Como, a technical update was carried out with the installation of an LED light system and so the Lighthouse resumed launching its tricolour lights into the night, alternating beams of white, red and green light. At present (2026) the lighthouse is closed to the public and the tower is waiting further restoration works. However, the panorama on the lake from the base of the lighthouse is outstanding and the place is well worth a visit.

Contacts
Municipality of Brunate via alla Chiesa 2, Brunate; Tel. 031.220301; info@comune.brunate.co.it; www.comune.brunate.co.it

To find out more: Tourist site of the Municipality of Como http://www.visitcomo.eu/it/scoprire/monumenti/monumenti-dal-900/faro_voltiano/index.html
Site dedicated to Alessandro Volta http://alessandrovolta.it/luoghi-voltiani/como/faro-a-san-maurizio/
 Site dedicated to creative walks “In the footsteps of Volta” http://passeggiatecreative.it/index.php/project/sulle_orme_di_volta/
 Site “Men and lighthouse” https://uominielighthouse.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/il-faro-voltiano-di-san-maurizio-a-brunate/