February '26

This is less applicable when it comes to staircases. For example, Carlos, Prince of Asturias and heir to the throne of King Philip II of Spain, did not pay attention to a steep stairwell, fell and hit his head. This injury changed him beyond recognition, and even his father determined that this prince should not run the kingdom.

Back then, Europe had not yet developed five-thousand pages of EU and national legislation defining what constitutes a safe stairwell. Correctly designed stairs offer human soles a superhuman power to elegantly fight the evil stepmother, Gravity.

This is not a result of coincidence, but instead of thousands of years of trial and painful error. The oldest preserved stairwell is found in the Palestinian town of Jericho. It is dated at over ten thousand years. Even in the second decamillenium of its existence, the stairwell is still unforgiving.

In fact, today we live in a golden age of staircases. Cities, the home of most high-rise buildings, currently house more people than ever before. Granted, elevators help. However, every firefighter and even the singer Eddie Cochran knows that when an elevator breaks down, the stairwell is the only way to get to one’s destination.

Two things are therefore obvious. Humanity can move not only forward, but also upward. Similarly, progress does not have to be the result of a spark of human genius, but instead the result of a step-by-step approach.