This paper investigates how digital technologies can support the preservation, interpretation, and public communication of fragmented medieval sculptural heritage through the creation of digital twins and augmented reality experiences. Developed within the MemId research project, the study focuses on the historical reuse of medieval sculpture during the Modern Age and examines how changing contexts altered the meaning, function, and perception of sculptural artifacts over time. The selected case study is the dismantled funerary monument of Cardinal Luca Fieschi in Genoa, today surviving as scattered fragments. Through close-range digital photogrammetry, Structure from Motion modelling, and metric analysis, the author creates a catalog of accurate 3D replicas used for historical reconstruction hypotheses and comparative research. These digital twins are then integrated into AR narratives and interactive puzzle-based experiences designed for museum visitors, enabling users to understand lost configurations and historical transformations. The research demonstrates how virtual reconstruction can combine scientific rigor, heritage documentation, and engaging public storytelling, helping medieval artifacts avoid a new form of oblivion.
Perspective Paintings of Naples in Augmented Reality
With this contribution we intend to continue a research started in a previous study on the construc-tion of a narrative strategy to communicate the pictorial images of historical cities. Resuming the theo-retical and cognitive process started previously, which directed the research towards the construction of a geocoded map of urban paintings and their use in augmented reality, we now intend to validate the proposed methodology on the pictorial image of Naples, chosen as a case study application, iden-tifying weaknesses and strengths of the research process and its possible future directions.
Phygitalarcheology for the Phlegraean Fields
The research investigates the theme of the valorization of the huge, but widespread, archaeological heritage of the Phlegraean Fields which, already weakened in its conservation and fruition by the bradyseismic phenomena of the area, is made even more fragile by the absence of narrative strategies, making even local communities unable to perceive its value. The study proposes a systematization of the knowledge of the Phlegraean Fields Park, through surveys and 3D models, integrated by the use of different digital technologies, which together promote effective forms of communication between users and heritage. Each site becomes the node of a network of thematic routes, traced starting from the major attractions of the area and aimed at defining a hybrid landscape, made of in site visits and immersive digital experiences. The goal is to generate a new model of inclusive museum, configuring cultural relationships between physically distant places, between lost spaces and real ruins.