CP violation and the cathedral builders' paradigm

Pointing out the profound and unique nature of CP violation, I sketch its b asic phenomenology its CKM prescription and QCD technologies relevant for h eavy flavour physics. After emphasizing the paradigmatic character of the e stablishment of direct CP violation I turn to the future, namely indirect s earches for New Physics in electric dipole moments, K-mu3 decays and charm transitions on one hand and in beauty decays on the other; these are descri bed as exciting adventures with novel challenges not encountered before.