Como

Giuseppe Garibaldi Historical Museum, Como

Como's Risorgimento and twentieth century in Palazzo Olginati, where Garibaldi stayed in 1866: from the Five Days of 1848 to San Fermo and the world wars, with the Olginati drawing rooms and a Neapolitan crib.

Visit duration: 45 min – 1 h 30
Booking: Not required
Area: First Basin

Qazxsw · Public domain

FSosio · Public domain

Why go

The Museo storico Giuseppe Garibaldi in Palazzo Olginati preserves the history of Como during Italian unification and objects from life around the lake.

It opened in 1932 after Carlotta Olginati's donation, with her wish that it be named after Garibaldi in memory of his stay in 1866. The history section covers Como's Five Days of 1848, the Battle of San Fermo in 1859, the wars of independence and both world wars. The ethnographic section holds textiles, clothing, furnishings and objects from the seventeenth to twentieth centuries. An eighteenth-century Neapolitan nativity scene and lace and embroidery from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries complete the collections.

The Risorgimento seen from Como, from the Five Days to the battle of San Fermo.
A palace with its nineteenth-century drawing rooms, joined to the Archaeological Museum by covered passages.

Highlights

Garibaldi's bust on the little bridge over Via Balestra
De Albertis's canvas of the battle of San Fermo
The Garibaldi room with the red shirts
The green room, the Olginati drawing room
The eighteenth-century Neapolitan crib

Getting there

It is on Piazza Medaglie d'Oro, beside Palazzo Giovio across Via Balestra, inside the walled town a few minutes on foot from the Duomo; the museum lies inside the limited-traffic zone.

Accessibility

The exhibition rooms are on the first floor of Palazzo Olginati; the offices and study rooms, on the second floor of Palazzo Giovio-Lucini, are reached by stairs or by lift.
The first floor is reached by a wide staircase in the portico, right of the entrance, or by a second stair in the wing on Via Balestra.