MONUMENTS OF COMO
Dome
The construction, projected by
Lorenzo of the
Spazzi, began in 1396 on the area of the Romanesque basilica of Saint
Maria Maggiore. The greyish marble, which was already employed in roman age, comes from the pits of
Musso. The jobs, that lasted three hundred years, ended in 1740. Peter from
Breggia worked to it among 1426 and 1453, from 1457
Florio da Bontà and
Luchino Scarabota, the author of the rose window, constructed the front that conceived in three parts. The cycles of the cathedral building are substantially two: the cohabitation period of
Santa Maria Maggiore complex, whose successive demolition allowed the construction site to include the free area; and the period that has been carrying on since the XV century, in which there was the demolition of
Santa Maria Maggiore except the southern flank. The beginning of the jobs, with the four eastern pillars executed by
Spazzi, caught on from Gothic cues and it was limited by the pre-existent building; the successive phase carried the complex to a development facing east towards east with Baroque and Renaissance elements. The building has a Latin cross plant and it is divided in three naves by cruciform pillars on which ogival arches leant. The transept wings and their apses go back to the XVII century.
Filippo Maria Richini, from 1627 to 1633, realized the skilful side;
Carlo Buzzi, from 1653 to 1669, realized the other one. On the sides of the main door, a privileged position was reserved to the two great pagan inhabitants of
Como:
Plinio the Old and
Plinio the Young. The two statues are added to other works of the same artist,
Rodari; these works are present on the front and inside the Dome. The sculptor
Tommaso Rodari from
Maroggia planned, in 1484, the flanks and the lateral doors; the left one is called "door of the frog". Also
Amuzio from
Lurago worked to the decorative complexes, contributing above all to the front system. In the interior there are, in the fourth span of the skilful nave, the wooden monumental altar of the XVI century dedicated to Saint
Abbondio; the tapestries of the XVI - XVII century on cardboards of
Giuseppe Arcimboldi; the
Adorazione dei Magi of the
Luini, with influences of the
Bramantino and the
Fuga in Egitto of
Gaudenzio Ferrari. The two organs of the fifth span go back to the XVII century, while the two lions of the XII century, that support the holy-water font, come from the ramshackle church of
Saint Maria Maggiore. The Dome harmonically units in himself various styles, the Gothic of the front and of the nave and the Renaissance of the flanks and of the external apses are dominant. The dome rises for 75 metres.
Baradello Castle
The
Barbarossa in 1154 had elected
Como bridgehead for its military operations against Milan. According to the testimony of abbot
Corrado Liechtenau (XII century),
Barbarossa had the Castle
Bardello erected in that occasion in order to defend himself from the inhabitants of Milan: he described it as a castle encircled by walls and towers called
"Paratello", it was erected in 1159 on a height of 432 meters. In 1216 the castle was assigned to 12
"boni homines", citizens of
Borgovico and
Coloniola, with the task to guard it. It passed to the
Rusca; Loterio then gave up the fortress to the
Visconti for a fee, and from 1246 to 1436 it was reinforced in walls and decorated with battlements. But the complex military structure, that joined to the defensive bastion of the below village of
Camerata, was unfortunately dismantled in 1527 by the Spanish captain in
Como Don Pedro Arias, who decided to maintain the tower.
The Monumental Fountain
The “Monumental Fountain” was commissioned by the Town Hall of
Como in order to retrain one of the entrances of the city. The planners, the architect
Cesare Cattaneo and the painter
Mario Radice, for the urban destination of monument, devised this combination of rings and spheres getting inspiration from the battery of
Alessandro Volta. 110 metres square of chippings sidewalk encircle the meadow, that is intersected by a footbridge. Two basins with spurt of various measurement on the grassy area continue the pattern of the circle on which all the complex develops to volumes and lines. Four rings follow one another until nine metres, they alternate in four spheres and face the smaller fifth, that is vertical and diametrically opposite. All the elements insist on the improbable immobility, that is ensured by a metallic pylon, by a pillar that cross the spheres and by four annular bracket. The base that designs an immense flat area between the meadow and the gravel , and the suspension of the enormous weight in the empty space, are the features of this bold compendium of sculpture and architecture.
Monument to the European Resistance
Placed in the public gardens, it was inaugurated on 28 May 1983 by the President of the Republic
Pertini It is a work of the Milan sculptor
Gianni Colombo and collects stones from the extermination camps and Hiroshima. Passages of letters of the people sentenced to death in the Second World War are affected on large bronze sheets.
Statue of Alessandro Volta
In 1834, the count Francisco of Hartig, Governor of the Lombardy, placed the first stone of the monument to
Alessandro Volta. The inauguration of this first monument dedicated to the supreme Physicist happened in 1838. The monument is work of Pompeo Marquises (1783-1858). The base, on which the beautiful statue places, with rich ornaments that reproduce the inventions of
Volta, was devised by
Franco Durelli.
Broletto
The
Broletto of
Como, building with gotic facade with white, grey and red bands of marble of larian quarries, flanked from the civic tower, was erected in 1215 by
Bonardo da Codazzo and modified in gotic-rinascimental shapes in 1477. The building today visible is what remains of a palace at court, after extended mutilations and restorations. Originally centre of the Communal Palace of
Como rose next to the ancient Cathedral of
S. Maria and
S. Giacomo. There is a dispatch of 1514 in which
Massimiliano Sforza granted the license to demolish part of the entrance hall of the
Broletto in order to concur the continuation of the construction of the Dome. This demolition obtained as result that the Communal Palace appeared to the
comaschi composed of two distinguished units, called respective
Pretorio and
Broletto. The oriental body, the so called
Pretorio, had a such planimetric configuration to comprise two others courtyards at its inside and presented a posterior facade towards the
Rodari Street, with a great ogival door. The facade towards the inside court of the Palace presented a porch with arcade in sixth-acute surmounted from two orders of trifore. The style features of this part were such similar to those of the
Broletto, that seems probable the news according to which the surviving pieces of the demolition of the
Pretorio have been used in order to reintegrate The
Broletto during the restorations of 1896-1898. The
Pretorio was demolished in small part in the second decade of 1500 and then larger in 1653, in order to make place for the northern abside of the Dome; the complete demolition happened then in 1846-1847 for the construction of the building still existing. The western surviving body, was tightened between the Civic Tower, that probably constitutes the most ancient tangible sign of the installation of the Common, and the bell tower of
S. Maria Maggiore. The
Broletto solved the function of filter between the square of the Dome and the internal court. In 1977 the Supervising to the Architetonic and Ambiental assets began the works of restoration of the facades of the Palace of the
Broletto. Jointly, the Administration deliberated, with District Council measure on 27 October 1997, to remake the roof of the
Broletto. Finally in 1999, seen the difficult situation of access of the
Broletto, caused from the inaccessibility of the building to all citizens (DPR 503/96 in force of which all the buildings publics must be rendered accessible) and from the necessity to carry out interventions of restoration, functional, technological requalification and of consolidation of the structure, the District Council, in date 16 December 1999, deliberated an allocation to give to the city the full enjoyment of the palace. Today the
Broletto is used as room for conferences.
Monument to the fallen
“The city exalts with stones of
Carso the glory of its sons 1915-1918”, in this way recites the inscription on the front of the monument. The monument is a structure in reinforced concrete on which rest powerful blocks of
carsica stone, in memory of the places where battles had been fought. A avenue colleagues it to the historical centre rendering it the focal point between city and lake that, from one or from the other point of view, meet in an ideal continuity in the two-faced architecture. Placed on the forehead lake, it concludes in fact a prospective backcloth (
Vittorio Veneto avenue), supported from the imposing block of the Novocomum. The plan was born from the elaboration of
Prampolini of the sketch for one tower-beacon of
Antonio Sant' Elia.
Terragni applied it to prexisting structures in reinforced concrete. In the furrow of the experiences conducted from the European Modern Movement, the structure rises on an base, articulated so as to redesign geometrically the side of the lake. The two facades, equal, emphasize, degrading in the game of moldings, one solemn handstand. Nucleus of the tower is the crypt. The names of the fallen on a red block, are in the sacred room.
Church of Saint Fedele
It was constructed about in 1120 on an unusual trilobate plant, on old-medieval foundations of central plant, from which the longitudinal body was developed. The facade has endured remakes also in our century, the mosaics of
Elena Mazzari are of the 1968 in the half.moon of the two doors that with large rose-window and the hanging bows, register the simple surface in a rhythm. The bell tower of the XI century collapsed partially in the earthquake of 1117. Dangerously tilted,it was demolished and reconstructed between 1903 and 1907 under the supervision of the engineer
Giussani. Of Roman print, of quadrangular section, today it is elevated like a body isolated from the basilica, rhythmate in four orders of bows with
trifore, bifore and
monofore openings. Two of the three bells came fused in 1842 third in 1962. Famous is the historical door of
S. Fedele. Inside, in the absidale area, the Roman climate becomes mild in the light that from the loggias is spread between the six baroque wooden candlesticks, on the four mosaics of the ‘700 and of Venetian school on the presbiterial floor, and the altar composed from original parts of several ages. In the absidale field that is opened on
Vittorio Emanuele avenue, observing the commessure,the bricks, the single courses and the different order of the system to joint, has been possible with a certain certainty, to place in different constructive phases the masonry of the northern abside, that one of connection with the doorpost of the historical door, and the so-called "wall on the slant". The histories of the door are affected on different slabs and the doorpost of left renders the structure asymmetric because placed side by side from the brick in which the scene of Daniel in the pit of the lions is represented. The house that creates on left a jutting out part of the complex of
S. Fedele, has with the sacred building a relationship knit along the centuries from the XVI century. The frieze, that carries out in proximity of the roof floreal motifs, are dated back to 1582.
