St. Peter’s gets AI treatment with ‘digital twin’ of famed basilica
VATICAN CITY—Every nook and cranny of St. Peter’s Basilica will soon be laid bare thanks to artificial intelligence and a trove of 400,000 photos of the celebrated Vatican monument, according to a project presented Monday.
Starting Dec. 1, the curious will find a reconstruction of the evolution through the ages of the Catholic basilica, from the Roman era to today, on its website (Basilicasanpietro.va).
The site will also offer a virtual tour of the basilica that celebrates its 400th anniversary in 2026, with the possibility of exploring both the Vatican grottoes and the magnificent dome crowning the building.
Those wishing to visit in person will find exhibition rooms set up inside the basilica, allowing a full immersion in its history.
To carry out the project, the Vatican enlisted US tech giant Microsoft, which reconstructed even the most minute details of the basilica’s architecture, paintings and sculptures based on 400,000 photos taken by drones.
The work, which took two years, created a “digital twin” of St. Peter’s, Microsoft president Brad Smith said at a press conference, calling it “one of the largest projects of its kind.”
AI made it possible to exploit “the enormous amount of data” contained in the 400,000 photos taken by the drones to reconstruct this “giant quilt,” he said.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the archpriest of St. Peter’s, said the project aimed to “decode for today’s man, with the help of digital technology, the intertwining of history, art and spirituality that make the basilica unique in the world.”
Besides the virtual offerings showing off the evolution of St. Peter’s, the website allows tourists and the faithful to book a physical visit, based on crowd sizes.
Millions of pilgrims are expected in Rome next year for the Jubilee, a holy year proclaimed by Pope Francis.
Able to hold more than 60,000 people, St. Peter’s is the largest Catholic church in the world.
Listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site, it contains the tomb of St. Peter, who according to Catholic tradition was the first bishop of Rome, and therefore the first pope.
Its construction, on the site of an earlier basilica built under emperor Constantine I, began in 1506 and was completed in 1626. Its most important architects were Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno and Bernini.
