Microsoft partners with the Vatican to bring an AI experience of St. Peter’s Basilica to the masses
- Thanks to a new AI exhibition, you can visit the Vatican online for free
- The collaboration uses AI and photogrammetry to preserve St. Peter’s Basilica
- The project takes place in honor of the Holy Year Jubilee 2025
Microsoft has teamed up with the Vatican to bring St. Peter’s Basilica online using the power of AI, allowing people anywhere in the world to visit the famous religious site without leaving their homes.
The La Basilica of San Pietro experience is a collaboration between the Vatican, Iconem (a startup specialized in the digitization of cultural heritage sites) and Microsoft, enabling unprecedented access to the most famous church in Vatican City. Visitors will have access to the basilica’s two immersive AI-powered exhibits and an interactive website.
The project celebrates the 2025 Holy Year Jubilee and hopes to make the iconic structure and artworks more accessible worldwide. The official site states: “The Pétros enì exhibition will give Rome’s 35 million pilgrims the immersive, personal experience of a lifetime, and it will also help more than a billion Catholics who cannot make the journey feel like they are 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 or later and will update this article in due course .
The launch trailer shows off the work that went into recreating this 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 (which uses 2D images to create a 3D model) to create an incredibly realistic 3D replica of to create the basilica.
Iconem took more than 400,000 high-resolution images and scanned the entire church using drones, cameras and lasers, with all data backed up to Microsoft’s Azure Cloud. From there, the website explains, the company created an “ultra-accurate 3D model, or digital twin, of the basilica. AI-generated images from Iconem’s photogrammetry data enhanced the visualization of both the interior and exterior of the basilica, allowing visitors to explore every intricate detail from anywhere in the world.”
Not only did Microsoft provide Azure Cloud, but the company was also at the heart of the AI technology that Iconem used to recreate St. Peter’s Basilica. The website adds: “Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab contributed cutting-edge tools that fine-tuned the digital twin with millimeter-level accuracy and used AI to help detect and map structural vulnerabilities such as cracks and missing mosaic tiles. The Vatican oversaw the collaboration and ensured the preservation of the Basilica as a culturally, spiritually and historically important 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 technology companies is just a glimpse of what the future could hold for AI tourism. This same process could be repeated for each major landmark, giving more people the opportunity to access it without the barrier of cost or accessibility.
For many, Rome is a bucket list destination, but it can be expensive to fly there from anywhere outside Europe. With this new AI exhibition bringing both Catholics and tourists to St. Peter’s Basilica, it’s another example of a revolution in AI tourism that makes bucket list travel something you can experience at home with a computer or a VR -headset.