The Lake Chapel of San Giovanni in Val di Lago is a small octagonal church, built in the middle of the sixteenth century on the shores of Bolsena lake, on the ruins of an ancient medieval church, along the Via Francigena.

The Via Francigena is an ancient road and pilgrimage route running from Canterbury in England, through France and Switzerland, to Rome and the to Apulia, in southern Italy, where there was the embarkation for the Holy Land. Nowadays many pilgrims still follow this route on foot, on horseback, or by bicycle, as the Via Francigena has been designated Major Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.

One of the stages of Via Francigena goes from the town of Acquapendente to the town of Bolsena, passing through San Lorenzo Nuovo. The main path crosses the city center, while an alternative path leads to the Church of San Giovanni in Val di Lago and then to the lake’s shores.

Participants of this competition are asked to reuse this space as a Pilgrim Center.

Competition publication

The mission outcomes have been collected into a dedicated publication.

Reuse Italy’s Dossier n. 4 – Reuse the Lake Chapel is a collection of the first 50 projects, together with articles and analyses to frame the cultural event into the history of that heritage and look towards possible futures.

A preview of the publication is available on the book page.

2nd

Camilla Gemignani, Francesco Grillo

1st

Miguel Bermejo Morán, Jaime Argudín Fraile

3rd

Kamil Lipski, Wojciech Pisula

Awards ceremony and Exhibition

Competition's Jury

A Gift from ARCHICAD

GRAPHISOFT joined our mission, and it offered a 6 MONTHS FREE version of Archicad (instead of the normal 30 days), to those who participated in our contest! Furthermore, they have prepared the 3D BIM model of the Fallen-church. Have a look at it!

Collateral call: KooZA/rch

Dusty boots line by Richard Long | submitted by Antonis Touloumis, Katerina Michalopoulou

Sacro Monte di Madlen by vol’naya | submitted by Nina Komrakova, Anna Utts, Victoria Petrova, Natalia Blank

A Pilgrims Dream by Miriam Casas Zúñiga | submitted by Guillermo Soria Alonso, Francisco Bayona Carrasco, Carlos Vallecillos Moya, Miriam Casas Zúñiga

Riverbed by Olafur Eliasson | submitted by Evie Lanthelme, Sidonie Courtois, Clara Lhermitte

La Città Ideale attributed to Luciano Laurana | submitted by Rodrigo Lima, Elena Nalin, Luuk Hofhuis, Sevdam Kara

The Floating Piers, Lake Iseo, Italy by Christo and Jeanne-Claude | İrem Çeri, İpek Akın

《shrine》by Arson Liu | submitted by WanYu Peng, XinYi Song

The Pilgrim in Prayer (Le Pélerin en Priere) by Canaletto, 18th century |

Multiple existence by KISHIO SUGA | submitted by Yifeng Sun

As close as you can for as long as it lasts by Douglas Gordon & Morgane Tschiember | submitted by Yifeng Sun

Supported by:

Virtual Tour

Photo gallery