The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice: Towards a Digital Fruition

The Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore is a complex system of environments that over the centuries–starting from an earlier pre-existence arose between the VIII and IX century–has undergone many variations and structural additions, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Despite the high tourist attendance and the vast decorative apparatus that the church houses, its fruition, lacks support materials that can guide the ideal visitor to discover the church, its history and its features, but also to obtain information regarding the sculptural and pictorial works. The essay is focused on the creation of a digital platform capable of guiding the ideal visitor of the place to get useful information for the museum visit: an online system that allows free access, in the place or remotely, capable of providing an interactive guided tour. The platform takes advantage of appropriate hotspots positioned along an ideal path of visit; each hotspot allows to access to descriptive panels through which the works of art are classified. The guided tour is implemented by texts, images, videos and digital models, according to the most relevant environments: information is organized in thematic graphic layouts, accessible in an intuitive and immediate readability. The work carried out is aimed at the touristic promotion of cultural heritage through the creation of a virtual environment and allows the sharing of content to the wider audience, ensuring the museum enjoyment of the environments involved and supporting the visit of the places.