Alessandro Volta’s lectures at the University of Pavia were so popular that in 1785 Emperor Joseph II ordered the construction of a new physics lecture hall, now known as the Aula Volta. The project was entrusted to Leopoldo Pollack and completed in 1787. The hall follows the layout of Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico, with niches and statues inspired by classical art; the current shell-shaped roof replaced the original ceiling after 1828.
The decorations in the Volta Hall visually recount the scholar’s scientific work. The instruments he invented or used are depicted: electrophorus, flammable gas gun, eudiometer, apparatus for studying gases, up to his experiments with frogs and the battery connected to a condenser electroscope. The classroom thus becomes a monumental synthesis of his experimental activity.
Inside the classroom is one of three versions of the marble bust of Alessandro Volta, sculpted by Giovanni Battista Comolli and placed here in 1831. The pedestal bears an inscription celebrating Volta as the “prince of electricity” and interpreter of nature, highlighting the international recognition of his scientific work.
Alongside his teaching activities, Volta devoted great attention to the Physics Laboratory at the University of Pavia. Considered a “lucky inventor of instruments,” he could order scientific equipment without spending limits, choosing the best of European production. The Cabinet thus became one of the most advanced of its time.
Today, the University of Pavia preserves and promotes around 750 historical instruments, including over 140 directly attributable to Volta. A distinction is made between inventions designed by the scientist and instruments purchased for research and teaching purposes. The reconstruction of the Cabinet restores the original context, with electrophoresis devices, electroscopes, electrometers, eudiometers, electric pistols, and batteries.
In 1878, one hundred years after Volta’s appointment as professor of experimental physics, a monument to the scientist was erected in the Portico Legale of the University. The statue depicts him in academic robes, holding the battery in his left hand. Since then, the courtyard has been named Cortile di Volta, becoming one of the symbolic places of Volta’s memory in Pavia.
The Great Hall of the University of Pavia, completed in 1850 to a design by Marchesi, also celebrates Volta on an institutional level. The bas-relief on the tympanum depicts him as Rector conferring a diploma. The building combines the model of the classical temple for the exterior and that of the civil basilica for the interior, expressing the public value of science and the university.
