The Making of the Film “Vienna in the Middle Ages”

Michael KLEIN¹ | Heike KAUSE² | Paul MITCHELL³
(1 7reasons, Vienna, Austria | 2 Stadtarchäologie Wien, Vienna, Austria | 3 Independent archaeologist and buildings researcher, Vienna, Austria)

Keywords: vienna, history, animation, film

Abstract:
A prominent part of the new Museum of the Middle Ages in St. Virgil’s Chapel at St. Stephen’s Square in Vienna is a 06:12 minute long film about the development of the city – “Vienna in the Middle Ages”. Beginning with the abandonment of the legionary fort, it follows the emergence of the city up to the construction of the town wall in the thirteenth century, afterwards examining major parts of the late medieval cityscape including the market district, the castle and the cathedral. The authors prepared the film for Wien Museum and were also members of the team which put together the exhibition at St. Virgil’s Chapel (curator Michaela Kronberger). The film combines the very latest archaeological data with thorough knowledge of the written and pictorial sources. It incorporates results based on georeferencing historical maps and also data from 3D scanning. The film unites parts of many other films and visualisations – from past projects of the Jewish Museum Vienna, the Academy of Sciences, the Stadtarchäologie Wien, Wien Museum and elsewhere – with new reconstructions of the urban topography and of prominent buildings in the story of medieval Vienna. The making of the film is a good example of the collaboration between archaeologists/historians and visualisation specialists.

Relevance conference/ session:
Combines animation with archaeological/ historical data. Interesting for all conference participants