Mighty Novgorod is a project that has digitally reconstructed the Church of the Assumption near Novgorod, Russia, a recent addition to UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage list.

On the basis of a 3-D model produced by students at the Academy of Art and Design in Offenbach, Germany, the Ars Electronica Futurelab created an interactive installation that presents a virtual mock-up of the church in the Frankfurt Cathedral. To accomplish this, the model was worked up for stereographic projection and an interface was developed to enable visitors to intuitively explore visualizations of the church’s artistic treasures. Visitors can use a trackball to navigate freely through the model or select hotspots on a digitized diagram of the church’s layout that lead directly to the most interesting views.

The project’s premiere under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Wintershall AG Kassel and the Cathedral Museum of Frankfurt am Main was held in conjunction with the 2003 Frankfurt Book Fair at which Russia was the honorary guest nation.