Description
Topolovgrad has the highest concentration of Thracian megalithic tombs and synchronous to them religious complexes in the country. However these are currently not accessible. The main project objective is digitalization, documenting and promotion of this local immovable cultural heritage. Its accessibility will be increased through its first digitization and high-tech visual presentation enabled through a new web platform aimed at a wide range of users. The project activities include archaeological research on the terrain, in which the local Roma will participate. Through participation, Roma representatives will be acquainted with cultural heritage and acquire awareness of the importance of its protection. Other activities include ensuring aerial snapshots of the municipality territories, video and 3-D photos, multi-disciplinary analyses of archeological sites, 3-D hypothetical recoveries and graphic reconstructions, equipment of a digital centre, elaboration of a GIS platform (geographic information system), and creation of a database and a web portal with a mobile application. The results of the project will be presented and disseminated among the academic community including students, most of which will be of Roma origin). The public presentations of the project will inform the academic community of the opportunities resulting from the project, increase the knowledge of the students about cultural heritage and ensuring access for Roma to the digitized cultural heritage. The project outputs are digitized immovable heritage, achieved high-tech visualization of archaeological sites, a targeted GIS, a database of archaeological sites and a new web platform for a wide range of users. The project target groups are academics, archaeologists and architects, students working in the field of cultural heritage, museum and municipal staff, tourists and guests, internet users and the local Roma population.
Summary of project results
The main objective of the project was digitization documentation and promotion of the cultural heritage of the Municipality of Topolovgrad. Through the project a large-scale capture of a large part of the cultural heritage of the municipality has been made using various high-tech methods. For a large number of objects, studies, analyzes and 3D models have been made. Several 3D renders have been made to show how the objects looked like they were. A large team of specialists - archaeologists, designers, geodesists, geographers and others participated in the documentation and digitization of the cultural heritage of the municipality. All information, photos, 3D shooting and replaying, virtual tours and more. is collected in a database and a web portal. A digital center with a server and two terminal stations is built in the building of the Municipal Historical Museum Topolovgrad, where visitors can touch the cultural heritage of the municipality in a non-traditional way for the museums. Information is also available on the web via the web portal. The tourists and guests of the municipality, as well as the citizens themselves, have access to the digitized cultural heritage of the municipality, part of which is hardly accessible and not very popular despite its great significance. Museum and municipal administration employees have upgraded their skills and gained new skills after the training they were given to work with the technique and portal to ensure continuity of the web portal's work and enrich the database in the future. The project contributed to raising the knowledge of students (a significant part of which Roma) in the field of cultural heritage, the importance of preserving it and presenting cultural heritage sites to the municipality. Representatives of the Roma population of the municipality took part in organized visits to OIM - Topolovgrad and to sites of national significance, through which they met their social inclusion and overcome their isolation and provided access to cultural heritage. The products from the implementation of the project are 354 pcs. digitized cultural heritage sites by aerophotography; Made 10 video for 10 megalitic sites for the first time; captured and created on 3D images the current state of 25 objects of national archaeological heritage, also megalithic monuments; prepared 3D hypothetical reconstructions and graphic reconstructions of 3 sites of national importance; created digital center in the building of the Municipal History Museum - Topolovgrad
Summary of bilateral results