Nullus locus sine genio – or there is no place without ‘spirit’, which the Romans called genius. The spirit of the place was called genius loci. The spirit or genius guarded the place’s singularity, giving it an animated character and making it unique and different from all other places. The Romans believed that apart from places, there is also no person without their individual genius, who was thought to be the person’s guardian spirit. The root of the word genius derives from the Indo-European word ‘gen-‘ to produce, the same root of the words generate, or generations. The root of the word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus meaning breathing or wind, with connotations such as breath of a god or breath of life, leading to inspiration.
