The first piles
Copper and zinc of 1800 โ the mother battery itself.
Melancholia~itwiki โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Maurizio Moro5153 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Maurizio Moro5153 โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Maurizio Moro5153 โ CC BY-SA 4.0
A Comasque (1745โ1827) who crowned a scientific duel with Galvani by inventing the pile in 1800: the first source of continuous current โ opening the door to all electricity after. Napoleon honoured and decorated him, the world named voltage's unit for him โ and Como named nearly everything: square, temple, lamps.
At half an hour, yes โ for families, science lovers and promenade walkers anyway passing โ and it is Como's distinguishing touch among lake towns: where others raise monuments to sailors, Como raised one to a battery.
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On Como's lakefront stands a domed neoclassical temple to no god but a scientist: Alessandro Volta, son of the city and inventor of the battery โ the man who gave humanity continuous current and lodged his name, the volt, in every language on earth. Como raised it in 1927 for his death's centenary as a unique secular shrine: marble, dome and columns to the memory of first electricity. Inside is a concentrated museum: Volta's original piles โ the copper and zinc discs that ignited the electric age โ his instruments, letters, and the medal Napoleon pinned on him in personal admiration. The circular upper floor overlooks hall and lake at once. A half-hour visit at the exact tip of the waterfront gardens where the villas walk begins: science opening the promenade โ a fittingly Comasque arrangement.
Copper and zinc of 1800 โ the mother battery itself.
A unique secular shrine โ a city deifying its physicist son.
Viale Marconi, 22100 Como