The “ancestral home of Alessandro Volta,” as stated on the plaque on its façade, stands at number 62 on the street that bears his name. Here the inventor of the electric battery was born on February 18, 1745, and died on March 5, 1827. It is recommended to reach it by walking along the medieval walls on Viale Varese as far as the intersection with Via dell’Annunciata, where the palace that once belonged to the Volta family begins. A row of stones arranged in an arch interrupts the regular line of the wall surrounding the historic center, recalling that the illustrious scientist had been granted permission to open a passage (technically known as a pusterla) allowing direct access to his home, later closed after his death. Palazzo Volta occupies an entire city block and is the result of the merging of several properties, a process that began when the southern section was purchased in 1536 by Zanino Volta, the first member of the family to move to Como from their original home in Loveno, a hamlet of Menaggio. It was Alessandro himself who, in 1803, bought the northern section from the Raimondi family, initiating the transformation of the pre-existing buildings into a single neoclassical palace. The completion of the property and the present façade date to after the great physicist’s death and were carried out by his heirs in 1861. A century later, the first floor of Volta’s house was purchased half by the Order of Engineers of Como and half by a law firm. Access to the rooftop garden is through the latter. One can still “feel” Volta’s presence simply by climbing the neoclassical staircase leading to the two properties: on the frescoed ceiling is the apotheosis of the Volta family, while along the perimeter appear portraits of illustrious citizens of Como, including the inventor of the battery himself and Pliny the Elder.
