With Preserving Assisi, Gruppo Panini Cultura is launching a major comprehensive digitization initiative for the Basilica of St. Francis, combining advanced technologies with heritage preservation.
The ongoing project, led by Haltadefinizione in collaboration with the General Custody of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis, will result in the creation of a scientifically accurate digital documentation of the entire monumental complex. This material will be integrated into a platform designed for the preservation and public access of the acquired digital content.
The digital transformation initiative involves 3D surveying of both the interior and exterior spaces, as well as gigapixel digitization of all the painted cycles, with the aim of creating a fundamental reference resource for study, monitoring, and conservation.
This initiative represents a new chapter in a commitment that has united the organizations now part of Gruppo Panini Cultura for more than twenty-five years. Following the 1997 earthquake, the photographic documentation produced by Franco Cosimo Panini Editore for the Mirabilia Italiae series dedicated to the Basilica of Assisi proved to be an essential tool in the reconstruction of Cimabue’s vaults, which had collapsed as a result of the quake. Those images became a crucial reference for restoration work, providing concrete evidence of how documentation can directly support conservation and post-earthquake restoration efforts.
Today, that experience finds its natural evolution in digital technologies. If at that time the publishing project offered a decisive tool for preservation, today comprehensive digitization through advanced technologies expands that responsibility, transforming it into a structured and accessible system of ultra-high-resolution images and 3D models.
Preserving Assisi thus represents the continuation of a commitment that spans the entire Panini Cultura network: from the editorial and scientific research of Franco Cosimo Panini Editore to the technological expertise of Haltadefinizione, in a constant dialogue between knowledge and innovation, with the aim of protecting and safeguarding the extraordinary heritage of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.
The project forms part of the celebrations marking the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis and is scheduled for completion in October 2026. At the end of the project, a dedicated platform will make the complete digital archive of the Basilica of St. Francis freely available, offering an in-depth and accessible presentation of one of humanity’s most important cultural treasures.
Preserving Assisi is being carried out through a joint participation agreement established by public deed between Haltadefinizione, Gruppo Panini Cultura’s technology company, and the General Custody of the Sacred Convent of St. Francis of the Conventual Franciscans. The project is supported by the National Committee for the Celebrations of St. Francis and the Umbria Region, in collaboration with the University of Florence.
