EssilorLuxottica Special Award: Horti

Since 2022 EssilorLuxottica has supported the Fondazione Italia Patria della Bellezza by providing a visibility prize. EssilorLuxottica selects and promotes the most virtuous projects, creating an ad hoc campaign on the group's big screens.

This year EssilorLuxottica has selected Horti of the Almo Collegio Borromeo in Pavia. Italy's oldest university college of merit inaugurated this public space on 17 September 2022, a 35,000 square metre park where art, nature and ethics intertwine.

This area, located in the historical centre of Pavia, once dedicated to the cultivation of vegetable gardens and orchards for the College's students, is now a place for sociality, creativity and the interweaving of knowledge. The Almo Collegio Borromeo was founded in Pavia in 1561 by Carlo Borromeo to give boys from the less well-off social classes the opportunity to study at the University of Pavia. The Provost of the College, Alberto Lolli, animated by the conviction that beauty has a redeeming and pedagogical force, succeeded in creating a garden that is characterised as a space of social inclusion open to the public. Today, this green space offers a rich number of initiatives. Collaboration with the University of Pavia, the Pavia Botanical Garden and the Sant'Alessio Oasis has made it possible to enhance the park's naturalistic value through the creation of water paths, the planting of thousands of new plants and the installation of bird feeders, insect houses and beehives.

Also, the theme of contemporary art has been developed through the placement of a permanent exhibition of sculptures and wall paintings by internationally renowned artists, including Arnaldo Pomodoro, Gianfranco Pardi, Nicola Carrino and Luigi Mainolfi. In addition, in the centre of the park is the archaeological area of the church of San Marco in Monte Bertone, which has been stored through educational excavations. Finally, the Horti are also an ethical project because they promote social inclusion, solidarity and sustainability, in collaboration with the territory.