Como

Tempio Voltiano

Alessandro Volta's original instruments in a neoclassical rotunda on the lake.

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

Krzysztof Golik · CC BY-SA 4.0

Krzysztof Golik · CC BY-SA 4.0
Zairon · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why go

The Tempio Voltiano, on the lakeshore in Como, is the museum devoted to Alessandro Volta, the Como-born scientist who invented the battery and died on 5 March 1827.

It was built in 1927, for the centenary of his death, and opened in 1928. The industrialist Francesco Somaini conceived it and paid for it, then gave it to the city; the architect Federico Frigerio designed it in neoclassical style, with an open reference to the Pantheon in Rome. The building, in white stone, has a square plan and a round hall under a dome with an opening at its centre; on the first floor a gallery runs round the hall, and the floor is of coloured marble. The museum shows Volta's original and reconstructed instruments, apparatus and mementoes, covering the battery, his work on electricity and his studies of gases. It is one of the sites of Como's Civic Museums.

Volta's instruments, originals and reconstructions.
It stands on the waterfront next to Terragni's war memorial.

Highlights

The original voltaic piles
The neoclassical rotunda
The waterfront setting

Getting there

On Como's waterfront, ten minutes' walk from the centre.

Inside the rotunda: the coffered dome with its ring of spotlights, the frieze with its gilded inscription and the display cases between the columns.

Accessibility

Thanks to a lift, people with reduced mobility or using a wheelchair can visit the exhibition rooms safely and on their own.
The main entrance has fifteen steps; a few metres away, an unsigned accessible entrance is reached by a short ramp. The lift serves every floor and the adapted toilet is on the ground floor, opposite the lift.

Practical information

Address: Viale Guglielmo Marconi, 22100 Como
Telephone: +39 335 8489213

Facilities

Car park 206 m away
Public toilets 77 m away · accessible

Distances from the point on the map.

Webcams

Como, the city and the first basinLive video · Skyline Webcams · 700 m
Brunate, looking northUpdated image · Ristorante Hotel Falchetto, su WeatherCam · 1.2 km