- A new AI exhibition lets you visit the Vatican online for free
- The collaboration uses AI and photogrammetry to preserve St Peter’s Basilica
- The project is in celebration of the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee
Microsoft has teamed up with the Vatican to bring St Peter’s Basilica online using the power of AI, enabling people anywhere in the world to visit the famous religious site without leaving home.
The La Basilica di San Pietro experience is a collaboration between the Vatican, Iconem (a startup specializing in the digitalization of cultural heritage sites), and Microsoft, allowing unprecedented access to the Vatican City’s most famous church. Visitors will have access to two AI-enabled immersive exhibits of the Basilica and an interactive website.
The project is in celebration of the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee and hopes to make the iconic structure and artwork more accessible worldwide. The official site says, “The Pétros enì exhibit will give the 35 million pilgrims in Rome an immersive, in-person experience of a lifetime, and it will also help more than a billion Catholics unable to make the trip feel like they’re in the moment.”
At the time of writing, the link to access the AI version of St Peter’s Basilica requires a Microsoft work or school account, but we expect access to be expanded sooner rather than later and will update this article in due course.
The launch trailer shows the work that has gone into recreating the incredible landmark using AI and photogrammetry, and it’s seriously impressive. Iconem, a company focused on digital preservation, was able to use AI and advanced photogrammetry (using 2D images to create a 3D model) to create an incredibly realistic 3D replica of the Basilica in just a month.
Iconem took over 400,000 high-resolution images and scanned the whole church using drones, cameras, and lasers, with all the data backed up to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. From there, the website explains, the company created an “ultra-precise 3D model, or a digital twin of the Basilica. AI-generated imagery taken from Iconem’s photogrammetry data enhanced visualization of both the interior and exterior of the Basilica, allowing visitors to explore every intricate detail from anywhere in the world.”
Microsoft didn’t just provide Azure Cloud, however, the company was at the core of the AI tech used by Iconem to recreate St Peter’s Basilica. The website adds: “Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab contributed advanced tools that refined the digital twin with millimeter-level accuracy and used AI to help detect and map structural vulnerabilities like cracks and missing mosaic tiles. The Vatican oversaw the collaboration, ensuring the preservation of the Basilica as a cultural, spiritual, and historically significant site for years to come.”
What does the future hold for AI tourism?
This impressive collaboration between one of the world’s most visited tourist destinations and tech companies is just a glimpse at what the future could hold for AI tourism. This same process could be replicated for any major landmark, giving more people the opportunity to access them, without the barrier to entry of cost or accessibility.
For many, Rome is a bucket-list destination, but flying there from anywhere outside of Europe can be expensive. With this new AI exhibition letting Catholics and tourists alike visit St Peter’s Basilica, it’s another example of an AI tourism revolution that makes bucket-list travel something you can experience at home with a computer or a VR headset.