In the summer of 1882, architect Henry Hobson Richardson traveled to Europe from his home outside Boston. His goal was to experience firsthand the Medieval buildings of France, Italy and Spain that had influenced his own work but that he had previously seen only in drawings or photographs.  

Richardson wrote ten letters home during his journey, noting the cities he visited and the buildings he admired. Following his return from Europe, Richardson designed some of the most significant buildings of his career, including the Allegheny County government complex in Pittsburgh, and in Chicago, the Glessner House and Marshall Field Wholesale Store. Richardson died less than four years later at the age of 47.

 In 2025, Boston-area architect and photographer Michael Kuchta retraced part of Richardson’s 1882 travels in Spain, visiting the cities of Madrid, Salamanca, Avila, Zamora, and Zaragoza. Where possible, Kuchta replicated the photographs that Richardson collected during his journey. Like the pilgrims who each year travel to Santiago de Compostela in search of spiritual guidance, Kuchta traced a ‘camino de Richardson’ seeking wisdom about the nature of Richardson’s creative genius.