CyI Team Digitally Documents the Buzludzha Monument in Bulgaria for VR Applications

Following a series of meetings, conducted in the context of the H2020 VI-SEEM and Creative Europe MAPS projects (https://nonument.org) regarding the use of digital technologies for the study of culturally- and architecturally-valuable structures, a CyI team comprised of Assist. Professor G. Artopoulos, Associate Research Scientists Dante Abate and Christos Keleshis, Composite Aircraft Developer Andreas Leonidou, and Visualisation specialist Marissia Deligiorgi, was granted access to the unique building of the Buzludzha Memorial House in Bulgaria (http://www.buzludzha-monument.com/mountain; and http://www.buzludzha-monument.com/history), which was recently included by Europa Nostra in Europe’s 7 Most Endangered heritage sites 2018 http://www.europanostra.org/europe-7-most-endangered-heritage-sites-2018-announced/.

CyI was invited to advise the MAPS project on interaction design and the concept of the VR application for immersive visits of the Buzludzha. In order for the Virtual Reality application to be developed, the CyI team visited the Buzludzha peak between 31 March and 6 April 2019 and employed different techniques for the documentation of both the interior and exterior areas of the building, in particular, terrestrial laser scanning for the interior and aerial (drone) as well as terrestrial photogrammetry for the exterior.