The Path of Wonder

In keeping with the theme of Easter, the lecture invites us to retrace a journey spanning thousands of years, from the very origins of humankind and life itself to the present day, through forests and then open fields, all the way to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. A journey fraught with danger that often proved fatal. Galicia has been a very important spiritual destination for millennia. Why do so many people still set out on this journey today, covering thousands of kilometres on foot to reach the Atlantic coast of north-western Spain? And to what extent has Europe, as a privileged continent with its culture and democracy, influenced or been influenced in its transformation by the attraction of its peoples to traverse its lands ceaselessly?

Eloisa Vacchini, an architect born in 1971 in Locarno and a graduate in architecture from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne in 1997, practises her profession at the Locarno studio – founded by her father – alongside her nephew Simone Turkewitsch. Since 2017, she has spent her summer holidays walking the paths that have shaped Europe over the millennia, with the aim of interpreting the vast territory that defines us as Europeans. Her research has led her to propose excursions linked to the theme of song and the proportions of space: she is currently working on a forthcoming publication on this subject.