Genius Loci

The Genius of the Place was an attendant spirit and guardian of artificial and natural places, worshipped as an actual deity in Classical Roman times. Also known by the Latin name of Genius Loci, this numen played a crucial role in the Ancient Roman cult even before the legendary founding of Rome. In the Aeneid, Virgil wrote that the hero Aeneas – to gain protection and find a new home for his people – invoked this tutelar deity during his quest (Brilli, 2019). For Ancient Romans, every human activity had to be first approved by the spirit of the place: every tree, rock, stream, building or city possessed its spirit, as later wrote Servius the Grammarian (while he was noting in Latin the fifth book of Vergil's Aeneid): "Nullus enim locus sine Genio" or there is no place without spirit (Pedone & Tedeschini, 2017). This happens because the deity cannot live in a vast space but only in a specific place. Despite the immense popularity among emperors and peasants, the pagan numen shared the same destiny as major deities, as they were all banned with the advent of Christianity and then cast into oblivion by modernity. When science gained ground, the modern concept of place rejected the idea of a living subject, such as a spirit, by stating that place is only an inanimate thing, a part of a great space, to be studied and mapped (Cascavilla, 2021).

But how exactly did this deity escape from the limbo where it was confined? The ancient guardian of forgotten sacred forests or ruined temples survived only among inked pages of classical texts, waiting to be re-discovered by those readers with an inward eye capable of seeing it thanks to their imagination. The Romantic Movement was the first to shed light again on the Genius Loci by sharing the original pathos and reverential fear ancient populations felt in front of nature's forces. The so-called 'stimmung', or atmosphere of a place, gained more importance among the Romantics as the quest for the sublime became their principal aim: the personal experience generated by the human mind in front of an aesthetic experience such as a beautiful landscape, a terrific waterfall, a majestic mountain or simply by some gothic ruins near a city. Getting in touch with the real essence of a place was the principal aim of the traveller-writers of the time, and many heard the distant call of the Genius of the Place (especially in Italy). The emanation of the pagan deity was felt once again by many authors, among them were Alexander Pope, Lord Byron, and Vernon Lee, at the dawn of the 20th century, as the spirit of the place was praised again for allowing the traveller-writers to experience its benevolent presence in its reign: the locus amoenus.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) suggested in an epistle written in verses to the Earl of Burlington Richard Boyle, to first consult the Genius of the Place as a real oracle: "Consult The Genius of Place in all; / That tells the Waters to rise, or fall; / Or helps th' ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale; / Or scoops in circling theatres the Vale;" (Moral Essays, IV, p. 156), since the spirit not only presided over the works of men as an advisor, but also acted as an actual creator. This approach of shaping a place according to the spirit's advice anticipated the architectural phenomenology movement of Christian Norberg-Schulz, author of the famous Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (see Norberg-Schulz, 1980, for more detail). Even Lord Byron (1788-1824) often evoked the Genius Loci in his poetry, especially during his Grand Tour in Central Italy where, on one occasion, in front of the river Clitumnus sacred to Ancient Romans, warned the incautious traveller: "Pass not unblest the Genius of the place!" (CHP, 4, LXVIII) as he seriously feared his wrath if insulted, and invited the visitor to praise him "for this suspension of disgust" (CHP,4, LXVIII) in the beauty of nature. In general, the search for the spirit of the place was considered like a pilgrimage to a sacred place, even a mystic experience, like the one noted by Vernon Lee (1856-1935) during her travels across Europe. In Genius Loci: Notes on Places, Lee tried to retrace and make contact again with the elusive deity, who "like all worthy divinities, is of the substance of our heart and mind, a spiritual reality" (Lee, [1899] 2007; 5) without form or genre, only to be worshipped in silence.

Nowadays, the spirit of the place can dwell even in modern cities like Praga, Berlin, New York and Rome (Cascavilla, 2021), but the hustle and bustle of today's life covers its voice. However, its presence can still be felt in quieter and rural contexts (e.g. on top of mountains, in churches and temples, in forests and valleys) where the traffic and the ringing phones do not distract the mind from meditating on the surrounding landscape. Those places where the Genius Loci escaped from its prison (as it can 'travel' across time) are niches of hidden reality where it still lives, and like the 'places of the heart' in tourism, are linked to the individual experience of unique and unforgettable sites. In these places, the numen becomes a bridging figure by showing its home to the visitor. However, while the modern traveller needs to be emotionally involved, preserving the site must be kept in mind. These challenges, alongside bringing back the text in context in a way that is appealing to the visitors, can be faced with the Genius Loci.

Pitte (2010), in Le Génie des Lieux, remarked that to retrace the lost harmony and become better people, experts must help find and reconnect today's humanity with the spirit of each place and then rejoin the ancient relation with the Earth. Since this tutelar deity is linked only to a specific place, it shares the same' memory of the place' of the people who lived (and still live) near its home. In Italy, next to Dante's tomb, in the House-museum of Petrarch in Arquà, the 'double presence' of the author of the Canzoniere has been felt since the 16th century. Here, the spirit of Petrarch lives in the house with his symbolic representation of his love for Laura. Thanks to the bond with the surrounding natural environment – a source of inspiration for the writer – the House-museum has become a site of literary pilgrimage (Baleiro & Arcos-Pumarola, 2024; 135-136), where visitors seek to find the 'stimmung' or the Genius Loci who dwells in.

Even the locals can become the future guardians of their territory as the increasing need for slow tourism has made it possible to fully embrace the roots tourism, which offers new possibilities for locals to stay and contribute to promoting their territory. Authenticity is the key element of experiential tourism, and literary tourists often already know the destination of the tour: they seek to find the real 'Spirit of a place' starting from the literary representations of landscape and cities and retracing them with the book (Baleiro & Arcos-Pumarola, 2024, pp. 86-88). Today, it is common to share these personal experiences through first-person initiatives (e.g. short videos on social networks) or documentaries like The Genius of a Place (shot in four years at Cortona by film-maker Sarah Marder, capturing the essence of the ancient history and the rural traditions currently carried on by younger generations of the Tuscan city), which helps to increase the e-tourism industry.

Remotely exploring tangible places seems to be the new frontier, which aims to create a live network of users from everywhere and bring together different people and cultures from around the world. But the tourism of tomorrow cannot forget the actual places (e.g. monuments, ancient ruins, forests and historic paths) or the intangible heritage comprised of traditions and memories. The solution is to use digital tools like AR-implemented technology devices, digital maps and guidebooks, or QR Codes. From a quote of a famous author to a digitised elder's knowledge, these participation tools can preserve intangible heritage while also sustainably reaching – with multiple-language digital content – a vast number of visitors/users with an enriched and personal tourism experience, like those travellers who searched the true 'spirit' of the place a long time ago.

How to cite this dictionary entry: Frittelli, E. (2025). Genius Loci. In R. Baleiro, G. Capecchi & J. Arcos-Pumarola (Orgs.). E-Dictionary of Literary Tourism. University for Foreigners of Perugia. https://doi.org/10.34623/zdg2-hn59