“What is a lighthouse doing in the mountains?” tourists ask themselves when they arrive in San Maurizio, the upper hamlet of the municipality of Brunate. Built in 1927 on the centenary of Alessandro Volta’s death, it had been proposed for the previous Volta celebrations in 1899 by Don Luigi Guanella (proclaimed a saint in 2011 by Benedict XVI), who thus intended to immortalize the values of the inventor of the battery, not only a great scientist but also a man of strong spirituality. The idea of Don Guanella, promoter of a Pro-Lighthouse association aimed at raising the 25,000 lire needed to build it, met with resistance from the then bishop of Como, who invited him to limit himself to caring for his poor, and provoked a clash at the University of Pavia between lay people and Catholics, led by two future famous friends, namely Agostino Gemelli, who had not yet converted, and Ludovico Necchi. Thus, in 1899, only an experimental wooden lighthouse was erected in Brunate, which was dismantled at the end of the “Voltiadi,” However, in 1927, Guanelli’s intuition was taken up and realized by the Post and Telegraph Association, which raised funds to build the monument—designed by engineer Gabriele Giussani, located at an altitude of 909 meters and 29 meters high—and donated it to the Municipality of Como. Since then, the red and green white light radiating from above reaches 40 kilometers away, and the view from the top of the 143 steps extends far beyond, all the way to Milan and the Alps. Few people know, however, that the colors of the lights are not only those of the Italian flag, but also represent Alessandro Volta’s faith, science, and charity.
