On Saturday, February 21, 2026, Via Lucis returns to Bienno, the devotional route dedicated to Saint Geltrude Comensoli, now in its 15th edition.

The route winds through the streets of a village recognized as “One of the Most Beautiful Villages in Italy,” which, on this evening, is made even more charming by the atmosphere created by the hundreds of candles that have always lit the streets of Bienno on this occasion.

Light itself becomes the central element of this year's scenic and spiritual narrative. In fact, the title of this edition is Lūx Lūcis, a Latin term meaning “light of light,” which leads us to reflect on light as a physical and visual phenomenon but also as a metaphor for knowledge and spiritual quest.

Via Lucis 2026 is inspired by a particular moment in the life of Caterina Comensoli, the future Saint Geltrude: a period of crisis and inner torment, around the age of seventeen, when her total devotion to Jesus is put to the test.

The journey imagines Caterina during a night in which she finds herself suspended in a state of semi-consciousness, between doubts and uncertainties. A night in which, however, the light is never absent but filters through and manifests itself in fragments, like colored glass segments that, in the end, come together in a stained-glass window that will reveal the “light of light” to the girl.

For this reason, the scenes of Via Lucis 2026, the so-called “Stations,” will be illuminated by atmospheres inspired by the neo-Gothic stained glass windows of the second half of the 19th century, the era in which Saint Geltrude lived.

Via Lucis 2026 will wind its way through some of the most evocative places in Bienno, with four Stations: the public will gather at the “Amphitheater” in Oldofredi Park and then move to the adjacent Piazza Benvenuto Mendeni and then up Via Castello where, at the Mendeni Tower, they will be accompanied by voices, sounds, and video images, before reaching the traditional final stop, the Parish Church. At each of the stations, a stage of Caterina's half-sleep and inner torment will be represented, accompanying the audience through music, narration, song, dance, and video in an emotional and symbolic crescendo that will culminate in the final awakening.

The staging, which will have a contemporary stylistic approach, involves local associations and artists, such as the Gruppo Armonie choir, singer Angelica Delvecchio, the Arti e Mestieri group, Tino Bellicini, students from the Liceo Musicale “C. Golgi” in Darfo, and finally, children from the SANTA GELTRUDE COMENSOLI nursery school in Bienno. An interesting addition to this edition, which is once again under the artistic direction of Cinzia Bontempi of the Bienno Borgo degli Artisti 2.0 association, will be Cuban dancer Alexander Diego, who will present a Butoh dance choreography

For the third consecutive year, Pierr Nosari is directing the production, as well as overseeing the dramaturgy and video projections. He graduated as an actor from the Alessandra Galante Garrone Theater School in Bologna and holds a degree in Semiology of Performance from DAMS in Bologna with a thesis on autobiographical theater. He specialized in television, opera, and theater directing at the Academy of Arts and Crafts of the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan. He has created theater shows, site-specific events, branded entertainment, and documentaries, including “OfflagaDiscoPax,” funded by the Emilia Romagna Film Commission, and “Subbuteopia,” about the game of Subbuteo, one of the first cases of crowdfunding. He has always worked in pop culture, aiming to create products that also reach an audience that is not necessarily ‘cultured’, with the goal of conveying socially and culturally relevant content through light-hearted language and a contemporary visual style.