A visit to the digital twin of Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City

Vatican City, the smallest state in the world, is the spiritual center of the Catholic Church and the residence of the Pope.

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The most notable and famous building in this small country, located in the middle of the city of Rome, is St. Peter's Basilica, built between 1506 and 1626 and which today is one of the four largest Catholic temples in the world and the one with the most interior space.

This temple is impressive not only for its great size, but also for its architectural and artistic beauty. Wherever you look, there always seems to be a new detail.

Such famous and brilliant architects as Michelangelo, Donato d'Angelo Bramante and Gian Lorenzo Bernini worked on St. Peter's Basilica. The most striking part of this great church is its dome, with a diameter of 41.47 metres and raising the building to a height of 136.57 metres. There are no words to describe the interior of this dome, which is one of the greatest works of art in Christianity.

In addition to these artistic jewels that are admired by thousands of people every day, underneath the basilica is the Vatican Necropolis (below these lines), an ancient burial site dating back two millennia that was explored through archaeological excavations in the 1940s and which preserves architectural remains from the Roman era.

Obviously, not everyone has the possibility of visiting this basilica physically and from the ground it is not easy to appreciate the smallest details of its dome and vault. A few days ago, the Fabric of St. Peter and Microsoft announced the creation of a digital twin of this basilica, created with more than 400,000 high-resolution photos and filling in the gaps using artificial intelligence algorithms.

The Vatican has announced that this digital twin will be available from December 1st, but on its website we can already see some details of the immense virtual work generated. Above these lines you can see a virtual replica of the main nave of the basilica.

One of the most impressive details of this virtual twin is the dome, which can now be observed in great detail. Above you can see a general image, and below an enlargement of its central part.

In this virtual twin we can also see some of the sculptural works of St. Peter's Basilica, such as the monument to Charlemagne:

The vault of the basilica is also available in a level of detail that is not easy to appreciate on a physical visit. Here we can see the canopy, over the main altar of the basilica.

In this virtual tour we can also see the place that houses the remains of the first Pope, Saint Peter, a niche inside which nineteen transparent urns with his bones were placed on June 27, 1968. The exterior wall preserves inscriptions made by pilgrims who visited this tomb between the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century.

You can watch a video from Vatican News here that shows a preview of this virtual twin:

Also, this Thursday the architect Manuel Bravo published an interesting video talking about this virtual twin and visiting this fascinating basilica:

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Images: basilicasanpietro.va