Microsoft builds digital twin of Notre-Dame

Move to aid preservation, global access

Microsoft is teaming up with the French government to create a digital replica of Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, France's most visited monument, the US tech company's president, Brad Smith, said on Monday.

As per Reuters, the 862-year-old Gothic masterpiece was reopened last December after a five-year restoration following a devastating fire in 2019 that destroyed its spire and roof.

A digital replica will serve as a record of the building's architectural details, Microsoft said. It will also provide a virtual experience for visitors and those unable to visit.

The cathedral became a symbol of Paris and France after Victor Hugo used it as a setting for his 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Quasimodo, the main character, has been portrayed in Hollywood films, an animated Disney adaptation and in musicals.

Last year, Microsoft worked with Iconem, a French company that specialises in digitalisation of heritage sites, on a digital replica of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

"One of the things we learned from the work at St Peter's is how a digital twin can help support the ongoing maintenance of a building. Because you capture a digital record of every centimetre and what is there and what it's supposed to look like," Smith told Reuters.

"The ability to create a digital twin right now I think will provide an enormously valuable digital record that I believe people are going to be using 100 years from now," he said.

Since 2019, Microsoft has digitally preserved heritage sites and events including Ancient Olympia in Greece, Mont Saint-Michel in France and the 80th Anniversary of the Allied Beach Landings in Normandy. The Notre-Dame project marks its latest step in blending technology with cultural memory.