WONDERS OF VENICE: SACRED AND PROFANE TREASURES IN THE ST MARK’S AREA

The project ‘Wonders of Venice: sacred and profane treasures in the St Mark’s area’ has been presented in Venice by the Veneto regional administration in recent days. It is an impressive action for the cultural appreciation of almost 400 historical-artistic works of world importance through the use of multimedia and technology for three dimensional representation. When completed, it will be the first virtual museum of such notable dimensions by number of assets in Italy, accessible thanks to the internet by computer, tablet and smartphone. The Veneto regional administration’s press release says that ‘thanks to the creation of virtual objects that can be explored in 360 degrees, three dimensional models and virtual tours, located in a dedicated, interactive, multimedia web space, the public will be able to virtually discover the characteristics of a large number of cultural and artistic items that have been particularly representative of the link between Venice and various parts of the northern Adriatic over the centuries, highlighting their origins, composition and in some cases iconographic development. In particular, the virtual tours will include the Treasury in St Mark’s basilica, the public statuary of the Serenissima, the Tribune in Ca’ Grimani at Santa Maria Formosa and the space between the St Mark’s area and St Mark’s square with its sculpture’. The operation, which will be completed in December 2013, is being carried out in the context of ‘Shared Culture - Progetto strategico per la conoscenza e la fruibilità del patrimonio condiviso”, of which the Veneto regional administration is a partner, and financed by the Programma per la cooperazione transfrontaliera Italia-Slovenia 2007-2013.