Digital meets Culture

Launch of new book: Creative Tourism, Regenerative Development, and Destination Resilience

The CREATOUR Observatory delivered the new interesting book Creative Tourism, Regenerative Development, and Destination Resilience.

The book draws upon the international conference, “Creative Tourism, Regenerative Development, and Destination Resilience”, which was held 8 to 10 November 2022 in the Azores, featuring research papers from diverse locations including Australia, Iceland, and Japan. These papers provide valuable insights into the practical implementation of regenerative and creative tourism initiatives, highlighting how these approaches can be tailored to specific cultural contexts and contribute to sustainable tourism development.

The book is available for free download here.

The CREATOUR Observatory is a sister project of SECreTour, member of its Network of Common Interest.

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

Vila-seca, Catalonia, Spain. June 17-20, 2025

ATLAS Annual Conference 2025

The ATLAS Annual Conference 2025 is taking place from 17 to 20 June 2025 in Vila-seca, Catalonia, organised by the ATLAS Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research.

The theme of the event of this year is Tourist destinations at a crossroads Space, community, products, politics and evolutionary processes in the age of transitions.

The conference aims at hosting wide-ranging scientific contributions and debates on the way tourist destinations, its geographies, products, communities and policy approaches have evolved and could evolve under the pull of global and local change drivers and how they need to adapt to such changes.

The CROCUS project participates in the conference, delivering a Special Track on “Cultural and Creative Tourism: Theories, Practices and Tools“. The Special Track provides a good opportunity to present the ongoing work, and to think about future lines of research.

More information about the conference and the call for abstracts is available online at the following link: https://atlas-euro.org/2025-6-vila-seca/

CROCUS is a sister project of SECreTour, member of its Network of Common Interest.

Follow SECreTour online also on the SECreTour project’s website.

Springer open access book collecting papers on the state-of-the-art in 3D digitisation, published in the context of EUreka3D project

3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage V – Paradata, Metadata and Data in Digitisation

The Digital European Programme-funded project EUreka3D has ended at the close of 2024. The two-year project developed innovative technology, learning resources, and practices to support 3D cultural collections, also shared in the common European data space for cultural heritage.

As an outcome of the project, the Springer open access book 3D Research Challenges in Cultural Heritage V – Paradata, Metadata and Data in Digitisation was published following the successful webinar in two parts organized in April and May 2024.

Access the book here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-78590-0

This open access book presents a collection of papers focussing on 3D digitisation in the domain of cultural heritage. The use of data acquisition technologies in digitising cultural heritage holds great potential for preserving and disseminating the history of mankind. However, to exploit these opportunities in full, comprehensive guidelines for documenting the process of digitisation are required. Only then can the efficiency and credibility of digital representations be assured.

A major focus of the 16 papers included in this State-of-the-Art Survey is on all aspects of the documentation of the digitisation process, i.e., the paradata, which, alongside the metadata, is critical to the scientific rigour, replicability and sustainability of digital heritage resources. The volume provides a useful resource for computer scientists, surveyors, archaeologists, architects, museologists and engineers.

This collaboration reinforces the projects contributions to fostering innovation and ensuring that the benefits of Open Science are widely accessible.

Strengthening Open Science for Cultural Heritage: EOSC Beyond and EUreka3D Sign MoU

Image credit: Centre de Recerca i Difusió de la Imatge (CRDI), Girona (ES)

The EOSC Beyond project, coordinated and represented by the EGI Foundation, and the EUreka3D initiative, along with its continuation EUreka3D-XR, both coordinated and represented by PHOTOCONSORTIUM, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). This agreement sets the stage for a structured and enduring collaboration to amplify digital solutions for cultural heritage within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

EOSC Beyond is a 36-month project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101131875. The overall objective is to advance Open Science and innovation in research in the context of EOSC by providing new EOSC Core capabilities allowing scientific applications to find, compose and access multiple Open Science resources and offer them as integrated capabilities to researchers. EOSC Beyond also establishes a federated network of pilot EOSC Nodes operating at various levels to cater to specific scientific missions.

Enabling Innovation and Interoperability for Cultural Heritage

The MoU underscores the parties’ shared commitment to advancing the EOSC goals by leveraging each initiative’s strengths. The collaboration will enhance technical interoperability, foster data sharing, and enable knowledge exchange to benefit diverse communities, including cultural institutions, research organisations, and other stakeholders.

Through this partnership, the projects will:

Testing and Piloting:

Implement the testing of EUreka3D and EUreka3D-XR datasets and services within the EOSC Beyond Innovation Sandbox environment as part of EOSC Beyond’s piloting actions.

Interoperability Initiatives:

Facilitate the participation of EUreka3D and EUreka3D-XR in EOSC Beyond tasks aimed at achieving interoperability between EOSC and European Data Spaces, with a particular focus on identifying and adopting suitable metadata schemas.

Knowledge Sharing and Dissemination:

Promote cross-dissemination and knowledge transfer to various communities, including cultural institutions, research bodies, and other stakeholders.

This collaboration reflects the strategic alignment of the projects with European Data Spaces. It reinforces their contributions to fostering innovation and ensuring that the benefits of Open Science are widely accessible. Moreover, the support from EOSC Beyond will boost the positioning of EUreka3D and EUreka3D-XR approaches and results as a competence centre in the 3D technologies experimentation.

“The collaboration between EOSC Beyond and EUreka3D will strengthen the EOSC/Data Spaces connection, fostering interoperability and the sharing of solutions for common problems. Furthermore, requirements and feedback from the scientist behind EUreka3D will allow EOSC Beyond to further tune its services to better serve European research.” Diego Scardaci, EOSC Beyond Project Director, EGI Foundation

“In the cultural heritage sector, we are witnessing a very lively scenario of digital transformation, that enables better and more modern workflows to empower research and citizens’ engagement with heritage collections, especially leveraging 3D technologies supported by various cloud services. The importance of interoperability between systems, and of a shared European vision for advancing cultural heritage and research communities, is key to fostering innovation. The collaboration established with EOSC Beyond supports the results of the EUreka3D project and empowers the upcoming EUreka3D-XR for the benefit of heritage and research professionals, as a concrete example of a competence centre for digitisation in cultural heritage, quality in 3D and experimentation of XR scenarios for reuse and enjoyment of cultural collections.” – Valentina Bachi – EUreka3D Project Manager, PHOTOCONSORTIUM

Looking Ahead

The MoU between EOSC Beyond and EUreka3D/EUreka3D-XR marks a significant step forward in their joint mission to strengthen the EOSC Federation and the wider ecosystem. By combining efforts and resources, the partnership aims to drive technical innovation, enhance interoperability, and support the alignment of services and datasets with European Data Spaces. For more updates and information about the two projects, please visit the websites of EOSC Beyond and EUreka3D.

The collections feature 3D models digitised in the context of the EUreka3D project

Discover new source collections on Historiana featuring reused 3D heritage

Pathé, pathé baby super | Image from Historiana source collection | Ajuntament de Girona

Explore two new source collections on Historiana, the online multimedia tool co-funded by the European Union that provides teachers with innovative, interactive resources to bring history to life and engage students. These collections feature 3D models digitised through the EUreka3D project.

Discover a selection of 3D models of pre-cinema objects, digitised by the CRDI Centre for Image Research and Diffusion of the Girona City Council in collaboration with La Tempesta. This fascinating collection showcases pre-cinema heritage equipment and artifacts from the Cinema Museum in Girona, shared as open access via the EUreka3D Data Hub. Explore the source collection here.

Explore the 3D collection of objects from the Oppidum of Bibracte (Burgundy, France). The oppidum provides a glimpse into daily life during the 1st century BC through artifacts uncovered by archaeologists and digitised through the EUreka3D project. Explore the source collection here.

Stunning new 3D collections digitised in the context of the EUreka3D project are now published on Europeana

Voigtländer & John (objective) | Ajuntament de Girona

Step into the world of history and heritage through stunning 3D collections that bring the past to life. From pre-cinema artifacts in Girona to everyday objects and cultural emblems from the ancient oppidum of Bibracte in Burgundy, these collections offer a unique window into the lives and creativity of our ancestors. Digitised and shared in the context of the EUreka3D project, these treasures showcase the value of preserving and exploring our shared cultural heritage.

The CRDI (Centre for Image Research and Diffusion) of the Girona City Council, in collaboration with La Tempesta, has digitised and shared as open access via the EUreka3D Data Hub a remarkable 3D collection of pre-cinema heritage equipment and objects. These items are representative of the heritage preserved at the Cinema Museum in Girona. Explore the newly published 3D collection on Europeana “Cameras, lanterns, and more pre-cinema 3D heritage from Girona“

Bec verseur en forme de tête de sanglier (Inv. 2003.34.116.1) | CC BY-SA | Bibracte EPCC

Bibracte (Burgundy, France) was not only a place of consumption but also a manufacturing center with dozens of workshops producing a wide range of metal objects, including weaponry, currency, domestic utensils, and ornaments. Discover the 3D collection “The Oppidum of Bibracte (Burgundy, France), an Active Economic Center in the 1st Century BC.”

The oppidum of Bibracte, occupied during the 1st century BC, offers insights into daily life through objects unearthed by archaeologists. These discoveries highlight activities like cooking and dining, as well as domestic living, which sometimes included conveniences and a degree of comfort. Explore the 3D collection “Daily Life in the 1st Century BC through Objects from the Oppidum of Bibracte (Burgundy, France).”

Animals played a significant role at Bibracte, as evidenced by the remains found there: bones of cattle, sheep, and pigs consumed as food; imprints of domestic animals on drying tiles; components of horse harnesses; and decorative representations, particularly of the wild boar—a key emblem of Celtic warrior culture. Dive into the 3D collection “The Celtic Bestiary of the 1st Century BC Through Discoveries at Bibracte (Burgundy, France)“

Discover more about the past and present history of Bibracte here.

How EUreka3D enabled the creation and reuse of 3D heritage – a new publication on Europeana

The digitisation process at Bibracte | 2024 | Bibracte | CC BY

The Digital European Programme-funded project EUreka3D has ended at the close of 2024. The two-year project marks a significant milestone in the field of 3D cultural heritage preservation and digitisation. It developed innovative technology and practices to push forward the boundaries of, and capacity for, 3D cultural heritage in the common European data space for cultural heritage.

Explore its achievements and learn how the project’s work will continue through EUreka3D-XR in the newly published editorial on Europeana: “How EUreka3D enabled the creation and reuse of 3D heritage“.

The blogpost was written by Frederik Temmermans and Jolan Wuyts

Exploring the importance of digital media authenticity in cultural heritage – a new blogpost published on Europeana

The Preparation of Tea in Japan. Inspecting and tasting tea – 1902 – Rijksmuseum, Netherlands – Public Domain.

What role does authentic, high-quality digitisation play in understanding and preserving our cultural past? How are developments in artificial intelligence affecting authentic digitisation?

Discover the reflections and insights from the recent webinar organised by the EUreka3D project consortium and the International Council on Archives (ICA) on digital media authenticity, featured in a blogpost written by Frederik Temmermans and Jolan Wuyts, newly published on Europeana.

Learn about the importance of authentic, high-quality digitisation in safeguarding and understanding our cultural heritage.

You can find the blogpost here.

Partner CRDI organized a training about EUreka3D dedicated to local heritage institutions

EUreka3D training in Girona

As a side activity of the EUreka3D Final Conference in Girona, partner CRDI organized a public workshop expressely addressed to catalan cultural institutions and other local professionals. The scope of the workshop was to provide training on 3D digitization according to EUreka3D methodologies, and also to discuss strategies for the dissemination of 3D digitisation projects.

In particular, the training included a presentation the 3D Digitisation Guidelines and the EUreka3D Final Booklet, by David Iglésias Franch (CRDI). These training and learning materials are useful resources dedicated to CHIs who are starting their digitization project.

In addition, a presentation by José Antonio Muñiz (DIGIVISION) and Quim Mateu (Museu Etnològic del Montseny), illustrated the work done for 3D reconstruction of the important archaeological site of the Montsoriu Castle, with the specific aim of providing dissemination and educational visuals of the castle across centuries, supporting the guided visits on site and the dissemination and local promotion.

The workshop was delivered in Catalan and Spanish and saw the participation of 17 attendees who also received the EUreka3D tote bag including the printed training resources and other dissemination materials of the project.

EUreka3D project is co-financed by the Digital Europe Programme of the European Union.

paving the way to continuing the work of EUreka3D as a Competence Center for 3D digitization

EUreka3D team visits Montsoriu Castle in Montseny

All images in this post are courtesy of EUreka3D project partners.

EUreka3D team visiting Montsoriu Castle

Following the EUreka3D Final Conference held in Girona on December 13th, the EUreka3D team had the chance to visit Montsoriu Castle, historical landmark with a breathtaking view of the hills of Montseny.

Group photo from the top of Montsoriu Castle

The Castle is 95% reconstructed following impressive restoration works, and the facility offers guided tours on the grounds, allowing the visitors to evoke what life was like in one of the great castles of the Middle Ages. Considered one of the great fortresses of the Mediterranean, Montsoriu shows us the structure of what used to be the grand palace residence of the Viscounts of Cabrera.

A glimpse of the Castle

During the visits, the team was discussing the possibilities offered by 3D digitization for the future of this site, especially in enabling virtual access to the castle, also with publication in Europeana, and virtual reconstructions of the different structures of the castle across centuries.

EUreka3D team at Montsoriu Castle

An agreement was established for a next survey of the location, in the light of providing a laser scanner digitisation of the castle. This agreement paves the way for the continuation of work in supporting stakeholders with 3D digitization, leveraging and sharing the knowledge and competence established and collected in the EUreka3D project. This is indeed one future training activity as part of the newly launched EUreka3D Competence Center.

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