COMO: PORTA TORRE TOWER, Como: Porta Torre Tower

Hi, I am Rick, your personal guide, and together with MyWoWo I’d like to welcome you to one of the wonders of the world: the ancient Porta Torre Tower.

The historic center of Como is still partially surrounded by the remains of ancient walls, so much so that it is called a 'walled city', and Porta Torre Tower, or the Torre di Porta Vittoria, with its 40-meter height, is the clearest testimony to the grandeur that this defensive system originally had.

The first city walls date back to Roman times, built under the rule of Emperor Julius Caesar more than 2000 years ago, but were almost completely destroyed around 1127 at the end of the ten-year war between Como and Milan. The walls were only rebuilt after the alliance with Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who arrived in Italy in 1154, and that is why these fortifications are called 'Frederician', to distinguish them from the Roman ones.

Porta Torre dates back to 1192, and immediately became the main entrance to the city as it faced the city of Milan. In the same years, Porta Gattoni and Porta San Vitale were also built, which are still visible today.

In contrast to these two towers, Porta Torre has a more elaborate structure, especially on the side facing Largo Gianfranco Miglio, towards the city center, where you can see four orders of two arched windows that correspond to the floors into which the interior was originally divided. Another peculiar feature is the access arch, which towards Piazza Vittoria has two small arches, while towards the interior it has a single, much larger one, to which, among other things, the windows above are strangely not aligned.

After passing through the gate on your way to the historical center, I suggest you pause to admire the magnificent façade with colonnaded portico on your right, where the entrance to the Alessandro Volta High School is located, followed by that of the 16th-century Church of Santa Cecilia. There used to be a nuns' convent here that was the richest in the city in the early 18th century, but it was suppressed under the French occupation in 1798 and turned into a school.

I bid you farewell with an interesting fact: there are numerous high schools in Italy named after Alessandro Volta, but the one in Como is where the great scientist himself taught physics for four years, when the institute was still called Real Ginnasio.