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In a groundbreaking collaboration, the Vatican and Microsoft have partnered to create a digital replica of St Peter’s Basilica, offering an immersive online and in-person experience.
Using advanced AI and photogrammetry, this project will provide millions of people throughout the world a virtual gateway to one of Catholicism’s holiest sites. The launch coincides with preparations for the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee.
The initiative, known as “Petros Eni” (Greek for “Peter is here”), employs Microsoft’s cutting-edge AI and Iconem’s photogrammetry to produce a hyper-detailed, 3D digital “twin” of St Peter’s Basilica.
Visitors to Rome will experience the exhibit in person, while an online version will make the basilica accessible to those who cannot travel. Additionally, schools worldwide will have access via Minecraft Education, the popular video game platform.
400,000 high-resolution images
Microsoft’s president Brad Smith described the project as “the oldest organisation in the world collaborating with the newest technology”.
At a press event, Smith highlighted the extraordinary scale of the effort. For three weeks, drones coordinated by AI from Iconem, a French startup, captured over 400,000 high-resolution images of the basilica’s intricate architecture, art and structure. Laser scanning allowed precise location mapping and AI algorithms processed the data to create the replica, ensuring a model accurate to one millimetre.
Smith emphasised that Microsoft provided its services free-of-charge, underscoring the collaboration’s significance.
The Fabric of St Peter, the Vatican institution overseeing the basilica’s preservation, plans to use the digital data to aid future restorations, noting its value in preserving the site for generations.
According to Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St Peter’s Basilica, the digital twin project will allow visitors “to see this basilica as no generation has seen it before” – from missing mosaic tiles to previously hidden architectural details.
Pope Francis affirmed the project’s spiritual significance, seeing St Peter’s Basilica as “a place where everyone, whether in search of faith or in admiration of art, feels welcome”.
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