Aurelia LUREAU | Jeffrey P. Du VERNAY | J. Bart MCLEOD | Herbert D. G. MASCHNER | Laurent COSTA | Gabriel WICK | Emmanuelle COLLADO
(Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & Università di Pisa – CNRS UMR Trajectoires, Paris, France)
Keywords: Digital documentation, digital collections, global 3D digitization, digitization workflow, global digitization management
Abstract:
The Château de La Roche-Guyon, France, has a rich history. Occupied continuously from the IXth century onward, the site and landscape is a palimpsest of fortifications, buildings, tunnels, caves, trails, and passageways. Over 1000 years of attritional remodeling has resulted in a complex multi-faceted architecture and equally complex difficulties in conservation, restoration, and long-term heritage planning. More than seven weeks of digital documentation has been completed at the chateau by Global Digital Heritage in collaboration with researchers from the CNRS and the Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and elsewhere in France, and in consultation with the EPCC Château de La Roche-Guyon (the public body charged with preserving and animating the site). Our focus was on three areas: digital documentation, maintenance and conservation planning, and digital public outreach. In this context, the rare but badly decayed mid-XVIIIth-century court theater, the early XIXth century neo-classical chapels and the medieval donjon have been digitized with future conservation and restoration projects in mind. The aim was to offer architects and conservators plans, sections and 3D models that would aid in assessing the current state of the buildings, and help guide future interventions. The castle is being digitized in 3D as a whole, but several smaller aspects like XIVth and XVIIIth-century sculptural bas-reliefs and graffiti from the early modern period and the Nazi occupation of the castle are being documented as well. We created hundreds of 360 panoramas in order to create virtual tours.
This project is being conducted with the cooperation of the family of La Rochefoucauld which still owns and lives in parts of the castle, and with scholars, historians, and writers through supplementary digital data, ancient maps,oral histories, folklore, and similar sources attributable to such a detailed and complex history as the Château de La Roche-Guyon.
Relevance for the conference: The global digitization of the site, and the smaller details, will be used as digital collections to be shared with the scientific community, but also the public worldwide.
Relevance for the session: This article explains the workflow and management of the digital data in a major French site in order to offer digital collections to the scientific community and curious citizens worldwide.
Innovation: Such a global digitization, paired with specific high-resolution details, in order to offer digital collections to the community, has not been attempted yet on such a difficult and complete site in France.
References:
• Robert Vergnieux, François Giligny. « Pour un usage raisonné de la 3D en archéologie », Les nouvelles de l’archéologie, 2016. Link: http://journals.openedition.org/nda/3818.
• Stefano Campana. « 3D modeling in archaeology and cultural heritage – Theory and best pratice », 3D Recording and Modelling in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, BAR 2598, 2014. Link: Natural History Collections as Cultural Heritage: Muséum national d’histoire naturelle à Paris.