17.09.2026  I  What happens to memories when the places where they were gathered disappear? When natural spaces change, open spaces are built over or knowledge is displaced, technology cannot halt these processes. However, methods such as 3D digitisation can document important testimonies to cultural history, preserve them digitally and promote remembrance. As part of the European campaign, Twin it! – 3D for Europe’s culture’, the ‘kulturgut digital’ initiative and the University of Art Linz are publishing high-resolution 3D digitised models on Kulturpool, Austria’s central search portal for digital cultural heritage, based at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. The funded projects demonstrate just how diverse and, at the same time, vulnerable cultural heritage can be.

Thanks to open licensing, the high-resolution models are not only available for research and teaching, but can also be used, for example, by artists and professionals in the creative sector. Over a million cultural heritage objects with open licenses are already waiting in Kulturpool to be reused. Technical interfaces enable developers to easily access standardized data and exchange it with other systems.

“Democratic participation in culture also means making digital cultural heritage accessible to all. Through open data, we are making our cultural heritage accessible, preserving the memory of important chapters in our history and thereby creating added value for society,” said Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Culture Andreas Babler.

The new digitized objects range from an important testimony of Nazi forced labour, to a self-organised and contested skate park, to an alpine glacial area undergoing rapid change due to climate change. Together, they demonstrate that cultural heritage also encompasses everyday places, social and subcultural practices, landscapes, memories and the knowledge associated with them.

“3D digital models such as the glacier model carry valuable knowledge that is useful for different disciplines and target groups. Not only do they capture fleeting moments of our natural environment, but they are also the starting point for research into it,” says Katrin Vohland, Director General of the Natural History Museum Vienna.

One example is the gravel crusher at the former Gusen concentration camp, which was documented with high precision by the Vienna-based initiative kulturgut digital. 3D laser scans, photogrammetry and Gaussian splatting enable a photorealistic digital representation of the historic site, whilst also providing a basis for research and future conservation measures. Missing parts of the plant were reconstructed based on archive materials and architectural research. The digital model thus makes knowledge accessible about a place whose history is marked by Nazi forced labour and violence.

The team around the artist and researcher Alexis Dworsky (University of Art Linz) demonstrates with their contribution that cultural heritage can also be found in places that might not appear significant at first glance. The DIY skatepark in Sankt Marx, Vienna, was captured as a high-resolution 3D model shortly before its demolition. Several thousand photographs were processed using photogrammetry to create a georeferenced digital representation of the area. Today, the vanished skate park can be explored virtually – including its bowls, ramps, graffiti and traces of collective appropriation. This preserves not only physical structure, but also a piece of urban everyday life, protest and cultural history.

At the Goldbergkees in the Hohe Tauern, the urgency of digital documentation becomes particularly clear: as part of the FWF-funded artistic research project ‘Beyond Glaciation’, the team from the University of Art Linz documented the glacier using more than 20,000 drone images. The resulting 3D model is a digital snapshot of a habitat that is changing at a rapid pace because of climate change. The glacier is not understood solely as a natural environment. Its connection to mining history, science, tourism, myths and artistic exploration also make it a cultural memory space.

The contributions from 'kulturgut digital' and the University of Art Linz exemplify the aim of the European 'Twin it!' campaign: 3D technologies help to preserve cultural heritage digitally, research it and make it accessible to future generations. Digital twins do not replace real places and objects. However, they open up an additional layer of remembrance, research and education – particularly where physical changes, demolition, decay or climate change are inevitable. By displaying them on the Kulturpool search portal, the digitised material becomes centrally accessible and linked to European cultural heritage data. Webinars and workshops organised by the Kulturpool Competence Centre offer the opportunity to learn how data can be linked and enriched.

This highlights a key message of the Kulturpool: Digitalization is more than just a technical method of documentation. It creates access to knowledge, opens new perspectives and reveals cultural connections.

Dr. Daniela Apaydin, Kulturpool Kommunikation

Mag. Irina Kubadinow, Leitung Presseabteilung, Pressesprecherin, NHM Wien