Rationalist Como

Between 1927 and 1940 Como was one of the places of Italian Rationalism.

Giuseppe Terragni built the Novocomum, the Casa del Fascio and the Asilo Sant'Elia there; the war memorial grew from a drawing by Antonio Sant'Elia. Cesare Cattaneo and Mario Radice's Camerlata fountain, designed in 1935 and exhibited in Milan in 1936, was built in its Como location in 1962. Nearly all of these buildings can be seen on foot in three hours.

1. 01Route: Palazzo Terragni, the Novocomum, the war memorial, the Canottieri Lario and Casa Giuliani-Frigerio; further south the Asilo Sant'Elia, visible from the street, and at Camerlata the Cattaneo and Radice fountain.
2. 02In the centre two hotels carry Terragni's mark. On Piazza Cavour he redesigned the first two floors of the Hotel Metropole Suisse's front in 1926 and 1927: it was his first work. Where Piazza Volta meets Via Garibaldi stands the Albergo Posta, which he designed in 1930 and which has been a hotel again since 2014.
3. 03These are working buildings, nearly all visible only from outside: the visit is urban, not a museum trail.
4. 04The war memorial on the waterfront has a viewing terrace at the top.

WhereComo