Clusters of galaxies are useful laboratories where to analyse and understand galaxy evolution under extreme environmental conditions. The properties of cluster galaxies are different from the properties of field galaxies in many respects, which suggests that galaxy evolution is accelerated in clusters. To find out how this accelerated evolution occurs, we determine the distributions and the orbits of several galaxy populations in nearby and medium-distant clusters. We also study in detail the star-forming properties of galaxies in a z~0.2 supercluster and the relative galaxy morphological fractions in clusters and cluster substructures. We piece together these results by drawing a scenario in which much of the accelerated evolution is caused by bursts of star-formation (and following gas consumption) in the galaxies that approach the cluster along the "paths of glory" of the surrounding cluster-feeding filaments.