European Heritage Days 2025: HaDEA Projects on Digitising and Preserving Architectural Heritage

This year’s edition of the European Heritage days marks the 50^th anniversary of this initiative and centres around the theme of "Heritage and Architecture: Windows to the Past, Doors to the Future", a reflection on the diverse architectural landscape that shapes Europe's cultural identity.

HaDEA, through the Digital Europe Programme, has funded several initiatives that contribute to the digitisation and preservation of the European Architecture heritage. By ingesting high-quality data, The Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage makes high-quality data available for reuse in several use cases, with an emphasis on 3D and Extended Reality (XR) models. Let’s have a look at some examples:

• 3DBigDataSpace project aims to expand and enhance the availability of high-quality 3D models within the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage. One of the main objectives includes the roll-out of demonstration cases to validate and showcase the capabilities of 3D reuse for different sectors, including urban history research. In this specific scenario, a baseline application, 4D World Viewer, will be adapted for the European Data Space for Cultural Heritage and will provide location-based 4D views of historical architecture and urban spaces. This will allow end users to observe the development of the heritage site over time and to gather information about its historical context and story. Ultimately, the toolkit will be available for re-use by cultural institutions, the tourism sector and other stakeholders.
• XRCulture project counts among its six pivotal objectives the deployment of XR applications, such as augmented and virtual reality. These applications will be tested in four scenarios following the creation and enhancement of high-quality models. A high number of these models will capture the architectural diversity in Europe but also the architectural heritage at risk and dispersed. In particular, the scenario XR for Heritage at risk, which is led by the Ukrainian partner, Pixelated Realities, will contribute to preserving diverse architectural sites under challenging conditions.
• 5DCulture preceded the aforementioned projects, ending in December 2024 and delivering outstanding results. The project developed eight reuse scenarios that brought 3D content to life in diverse and impactful ways. One of these was the Historic Buildings and Cityscapes scenario, which explored innovative tools to enhance virtual cultural tourism, education, and research for Europe’s architectural heritage. The new 3D models developed were aggregated into the European Data Space. In addition, the project showcased three industrial heritage sites in Idrija, Slovenia, creating digital souvenirs to be distributed to tourists at the sites. The content for these digital stories was developed in collaboration with local museums and cultural heritage institutions.

Background

The Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) aims to build the strategic digital capacities of the EU and to facilitate the wide deployment of digital technologies. With an overall budget of €7.5 billion, out of which €0.8 billion is managed by HaDEA.

The European Data Space for Cultural Heritage is a flagship initiative of the European Union to support the digital transformation of the cultural heritage sector, funded by the Digital Europe Programme, and part of the Common European Data Spaces  created under the European strategy for data.

The European Heritage Days is an initiative by the Council of Europe that started in 1975. The initiative aims to raise awareness of Europe’s rich cultural diversity and encourage the preservation of its heritage for future generations.