This virtual visit is a component of the master’s dissertation “Reencontro com o mosteiro perdido. Visita Virtual ao Mosteiro da Madre de Deus” by Maria Jogo Nazário.

Abstract

New technologies have been playing a very important role in the way museum institutions communicate with the public, having a major influence on digital heritage and in the way it can be widely spread.

Over the years, we have witnessed the integration of various types of documentation in new technologies, and how they have come to be a big information base for the entire population. Thus, it is important to understand how these media can be used to make cultural and educational information known to different people, making it possible to learn through these new platforms. An example are virtual tours, which have increasingly become a way of disseminating museum institutions, communicating to the public an idea of what they can find in reality and enthrall them with their stories and architectural spaces to visit.

The present dissertation intends to understand how a virtual tour can help to understand and experience the past. To this end, the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (National Tile Museum), former Monastery of Madre de Deus was studied, carrying out digital reconstructions of the building in its current state and reconstructions of hypotheses regarding the foundational core of the 16th century. So, to do that, it was necessary to study some concepts and methodologies to create an educational and dynamic virtual tour. And yet, the entire history of the building, from its foundation to the present, allowing the visitor to emerge in a new reality, exploring something that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Through this visit, it was possible to understand the potential of these tools and how they can be a great source of knowledge, when well used and properly justified, also serving the purposes of digital heritage.

Organization

Ana Tomé (PhD, IST) and Jesse Rafeiro (PhD, Carleton) – IPTI research

Partnership

Dr. Alexandre Pais, Director of Museu Nacional do Azulejo

Acknowledgements

Dr. Paula Figueiredo, Head of Division of Arquivo, Documentação e Bibliotecas, Departamento dos Bens Culturais, Direção-Geral do Património Cultural, Forte de Sacavém

Prof. Nuno Senos, Department Deputy Chair of the Departamento de História da Arte, FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Deputy Director / Full Researcher of the Instituto de História da Arte

Drª Clara Raimundo, Communications Manager of the Sé Patriacal

Museu de Civil, IST