Mura di Como

Mura di Como are the historic walls surrounding Como, Italy, with surviving sections, towers and gates especially visible on the western side. Their earliest form dates to the first century BC, when Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum in a reclaimed valley.

Roman defences once stood nearly ten metres high and two metres thick, enclosing a four-sided city with battlements, towers and four main gates. Milanese forces destroyed them in 1127, then Frederick Barbarossa ordered their reconstruction between 1158 and 1192, adding a moat and strengthening the city’s fortifications. Later expansions reached the lake, while the Rusca, Visconti and Sforza families added towers, fortified houses and the Visconti Citadel. Sixteenth-century works reduced access to Porta Portello, Porta Torre and Porta Sala, before Spanish and Austrian rule brought further changes.

In 1783, Como bought the walls from the military, filled the moat and turned it into a tree-lined avenue. The Castello della Torre Rotonda disappeared in 1811, making way for Teatro Sociale, while roads and public buildings later altered other sections. Alongside the remaining stonework, the old towers and gates preserve a visible line from Roman Como to the modern city.