Cielo de Salamanca - an immersive journey * 2026
University of Salamanca Heritage Musem (Spain)
Cielo de Salamanca – An Immersive Journey is an immersive mixed reality experience that reinterprets one of the University of Salamanca's (USAL) most iconic cultural treasures through contemporary immersive storytelling. Created within SciCommXR, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European project led by António Baía Reis at the CaUSAL (Academic Culture, Heritage and Social Memory) research group, the experience invites visitors to rediscover the Cielo de Salamanc, the celebrated 15th-century astronomical fresco painted by Fernando Gallego, through a new form of heritage mediation that combines mixed reality, spatial audio, artificial intelligence, and experiential narrative.
Rather than presenting the fresco solely as an object of historical contemplation, the project reframes it as a living cultural experience, revealing its artistic, astronomical, symbolic, and educational dimensions through immersive technologies.
At the heart of the project lies a simple but transformative idea: encouraging visitors to "look beyond". The experience unfolds through two complementary interventions. Celestial Prelude is a permanent immersive audio experience, accessed via a QR code installed at the entrance to the monument, inviting audiences to "listen before they look" and preparing them emotionally and intellectually for the visit. Cielo de Salamanca – An Immersive Journey then allows visitors, using mixed reality, to explore new visual and narrative layers that reveal the fresco's hidden stories, astronomical references, artistic symbolism, and historical context. Rather than replacing the physical encounter with the artwork, the experience deepens it, encouraging a slower, more reflective engagement with one of Spain's most significant examples of Renaissance heritage. In this sense, the project operates simultaneously as heritage communication, experiential learning, and immersive storytelling, combining scholarly rigor with artistic interpretation and carefully designed sensory interaction.
The work is explicitly interdisciplinary, bringing together expertise from art history, cultural heritage, astronomy, mathematics, immersive media, artificial intelligence, and science communication. Alongside CaUSAL, the project was developed in close collaboration with specialists from the University of Salamanca, including the Departments of Art History and Fine Arts and the Institute of Fundamental Physics and Mathematics, while immersive development was carried out in partnership with XR artist José Villot (Kluge Interactive). This collaboration reflects SciCommXR's broader vision of heritage innovation as a dialogue between humanities, science, and emerging technologies. Officially launched in June 2026 at the University of Salamanca, the project forms part of a wider institutional strategy to connect university heritage with contemporary audiences through immersive media, positioning XR not simply as a technological tool but as a new language for cultural mediation and public engagement.
FULL EXPERIENCE:
Available on-site at the Escuelas Menores of the University of Salamanca, where visitors can experience Celestial Prelude and Cielo de Salamanca – An Immersive Journey as part of the permanent heritage visit.
Creative direction, concept, immersive storytelling, and science communication were led by António Baía Reis. Historical-artistic direction and heritage consultancy were provided by Dr. Eduardo Azofra and Dr. María Sáez Martín (University of Salamanca). Scientific consultancy on astronomy and mathematics was led by Dr. José Guillermo Sánchez León (University of Salamanca). Immersive technology direction and XR development were led by José Villot Guisán (Kluge Interactive). The project was developed within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie SciCommXR project at the University of Salamanca, exploring new approaches to public communication of science and cultural heritage through immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, and arts-based research.
MEDIA:
https://www.salamanca24horas.com/universidad/tecnologia-patrimonio-unen-redescubrir-cielo-salamanca