Skip to content

Como

Pinacoteca Civica, Palazzo Volpi

From Romanesque capitals to Como's abstract painters, in a seventeenth-century palace inside the walled town.

Visit duration
1 h – 2 h
Booking
Not required
Area
First Basin
A Romanesque capital with figures, in the gallery's medieval section.Ottantafame · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Carlo Dell'Orto · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Ottantafame · CC BY-SA 4.0

1 / 3

A Romanesque capital with figures, in the gallery's medieval section.

Ottantafame · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

Como's civic art gallery has occupied Palazzo Volpi since 1989.

Designed by Sergio Venturi in the early seventeenth century, the U-shaped palace has a courtyard loggia and a grand staircase to the first-floor hall.

Three floors display the city's art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, acquired through bequests, gifts and purchases. The medieval section on the ground floor includes Carolingian and Romanesque sculpture from Sant'Abbondio, frescoes from San Giorgio in Borgovico and the portal of Santa Margherita, demolished in the late nineteenth century. Other sections show Paolo Giovio's portraits of Illustrious Men, landscapes, genre painting, drawings by the Futurist architect Antonio Sant'Elia and work by Como's twentieth-century abstract artists.

  • Como from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, on three floors, in a couple of hours.
  • It pairs with the Rationalist walk: Sant'Elia's drawings and the abstract painters are its prologue.

Highlights

  • The medieval section, with capitals and reliefs
  • Paolo Giovio's portraits of Illustrious Men
  • Antonio Sant'Elia's drawings and Como's abstract painters

Getting there

  • On foot inside the walled town, five minutes from the cathedral.
Palazzo Volpi from the street corner: the pale front with green shutters, the rusticated corner, the doorway and the flag.Ysogo · CC BY-SA 4.0

Accessibility

  • Ramps and a lift make the museum accessible to people with reduced mobility or using a wheelchair. Wheelchair users go in by a ramp through the door to the right of the main entrance, which the staff open on arrival.
  • The only section not accessible in a wheelchair is the Renaissance one, because of a step. There are toilets reserved for disabled visitors on the ground floor.
  • The medieval section is equipped for blind and partially sighted visitors, with braille labels and tactile routes over the stone finds.

Practical information

Facilities

  • Car park 174 m away · paid
  • Public toilets 215 m away

Distances from the point on the map.

Webcams

Updated 22 October 2026

On the map

Explore the lake
ComoPinacoteca Civica, Palazzo Volpi

© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL

What's on nearby

Events within a few kilometres, on now or coming up.

See all

Nearby: places, experiences, services

Distances as the crow flies.

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 9 Oct 2026Comune di Comoopens in a new tab

Sources and credits

Verified at source1 Oct – 9 Oct 2026Comune di Comoopens in a new tab