Arkikus - Santa Catalina

"Arkikus - Santa Catalina" is a mobile application aimed at public use and created by Arkikus under the support of the Iruña de Oca Town Council (Alava, Basque Country, Spain) to show the virtual reconstruction the Santa Catalina de Badaia Monastery.

The legal owner of this historical site is the Iruña de Oca Town Council (www.irunadeoca.com), which purchased the property in 1999 and has undertaken the restoration and enhancement of the site and its Botanical Garden since then. In 2016, the Garden was awarded the Basque Goverment’s Tourism Competitiveness Award, based on its fine landscaping and intrinsic heritage value.

Arkikus (www.arkikus.com) promotes tourism and culture through the virtual reconstruction of lost or endangered historical, archaeological and artistic heritage.

All the digital contents included in the application have been developed based on the archaeological and written documentation currently available for the site. If information was not available for certain objects, period specific architecture and ornaments from neighbouring regions were used as a guide in efforts to maintain historical accuracy. These reconstructions provide an interpretation of the site based on the guidelines of the project’s advisory panel’s. It is anticipated that new investigations by future studies may further refine these interpretations.

Acknowledgements: Asociación de Amigos del Jardín Botánico de Santa Catalina, Binary Soul, ttak! Drone Works, Isuuru Architects, Daniel Luengas, Idoia Filloy, Paquita Sáenz de Urturi, Vanesa García, Egoitz Alfaro, Juantxo Donés, Iñigo Echezarreta, Nagore González and Sheldon Romashenko.