Faro Voltiano

On the crest of Monte Tre Croci above Brunate stands a 29-metre octagonal lighthouse raised in 1927 to honour Alessandro Volta a century after his death. Its beam sweeps the night in Italy's colours, and from its balconies the eye runs from Lake Como to the Alps and, on clear days, toward Milan.

Why it matters

The Faro Voltiano is the defining silhouette of Brunate and one of the most recognisable monuments on the Como lakefront skyline. It was conceived as the city of Como's monumental gift to Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electric battery, for the centenary of his death in 1927 — a tribute that deliberately paired Volta the scientist with Volta the believer, an idea first floated for the Volta celebrations of 1899 by don Luigi Guanella, later canonised. The tower is also a panoramic landmark whose lantern deck looks across the entire first basin of Lake Como, the city of Como, Cernobbio, the western Alps as far as Monte Rosa and, in exceptionally clear weather, the Madonnina of Milan's cathedral.

What to notice

The tower is a clean octagonal shaft in stone, 29 metres tall, designed by engineer Gabriele Giussani and financed through the Postelegrafonici association, which then donated it to the city of Como. A spiral staircase leads to circular balconies beneath the lantern. The rotating beam alternates white, red and green, colours associated both with the Italian flag and with the monument’s original symbolism of faith, science and charity. Around the base, the terrace opens onto one of the widest panoramas in the Como area.

Context and history

The monument was inaugurated in September 1927 in the presence of the minister Costanzo Ciano, closing a project that had first been imagined for the 1899 celebrations honouring the battery's inventor, when only a temporary wooden lighthouse was tried. The 1927 version was built quickly and decisively: the Postelegrafonici — the national association of postal and telegraph workers — revived the idea, funded the construction and handed the finished lighthouse to the Comune di Como. The tower has been renewed technically over the decades; between 2012 and 2016 an upgrading project removed obsolete parts, famously including the extraction and disposal of a 70-kilogram bath of liquid mercury once used to float the rotating optical assembly, and installed modern LED lamps. The lighthouse commemorates Volta’s contribution to science and remains a landmark above the lake.