The holding of lectures open to the public, in which the theory was accompanied by experiments (the most interesting) was explicitly provided for in the renewal plan of the University wanted by Maria Theresa. To welcome the large audience that attended the lessons of Volta, Joseph II, in 1785 ordered the construction of a new classroom for Physics to be located on the east side of the Theological Portico. The works were entrusted to the architect Leopoldo Pollack, who completed them in 1787. The classroom repeats the scheme of palladio’s Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, with which it presents both structural and decorative similarities. The motif of the niches with statues also constitutes a clear quotation from Palladio. Having damaged the original flat ceiling, the architect Marchesi replaced it, after 1828, with the current shell roof.

Behind the chair is the bust of Volta, the work of the sculptor Giuseppe Comolli (XIX century). on the pedestal is engraved the epigraph dictated by abbot Pietro Configliacchi. On the wall above the sculpture are depicted the most important scientific instruments invented by Volta. In particular, on the left side, you can see an electrophore, a flammable gas gun, a eudiometer and an apparatus for measuring the isobaric expansion of gases; on the right side, instead, a presentation of some experiments with frogs and a battery connected with a capacitor electroscope.