23 January 2021

Alternative traveling tip: Virtual tours through Austrian monasteries, libraries, castles, modern art exhibitions,... interactively accessible via the new platform 'Cultour.Digital'

Recently, the Austrian in Styria based Stift Admont (Admont Abbey) and the digitization company LightCyde launched the media platform 'Cultour.Digital' for interactive culture tours, livestreams from exhibitions, as well as culture and art films in TV format for Apple TV or Amazon Fire TV. Cultour.Digital's technological architecture has been already adapted by partners such as the Tyrolean Tratzberg Castle did for virtual tours like the 'Maximilian Rooms'. At the tour introduction (in Deutsch and English), a glimpse into one of the rooms of Emperor Maximilian I. is provided with a citation and picture of the authentic writing on the wall from the 15th century:

"I am alive and don't know how long.
I'm dying and I don't know when.
I'm traveling and don't know where.
It's amazing that I'm so happy."

The tours are available for affordable prices, currently listed in euros, payments are processed via PayPal. It's planned to extend the service in the next steps to Asia and USA. At the online press conference (video at 9:35), Mario Brandmüller, Cultour.Digital project developer and Director of Culture, Tourism and Public Relations at Stift Admont, shows at the example of the library of Stift Admont (the world's largest monastic library) how the virtual tours open new sights such as entering hidden staircases or browsing through old books which is normally not allowed during visits. The concept of 'Cultour.Digital' is to offer a sustainable source for information about the locations respectively exhibitions, even in times without pandemic-related restricted access. In future, the platform will also be used for getting insights additionally before and/or after the visit of the castle, museum or library.

Image: Screenshot from the 'Cultour.Digital' tour (available at www.cultour.digital) with view from the gallery at parts of the Stift Admont library. Normally, it's not possible for visitors to access the gallery. The culture platform was launched on 21 January 2021. Photo: © Stift Admont.