In February 2024, Michael Ecker, excavation manager (AQuiS), and Nicole Kasparek, head of the restoration department of the Saarland State Monuments Office, travelled to Vienna at the invitation of colleagues from the Federal Monuments Office. They presented the "DigiGlue" wall painting scanner as part of the expert discussion "Digital applications for merging fragments in the field of monument conservation". This technology, the result of a research project, enables precise and gentle digitisation of wall painting fragments. In addition, "DigiGlue" opens up new perspectives in the field of wall painting restoration, as the digitised find material can be further processed on screen in a way that is gentle on the material and can also be virtually assembled.
Representatives from the Federal Monuments Office in Austria have now visited the project on site in Saarland. In November 2024, the Saarland State Monuments Office presented the innovative technology to colleagues from Vienna at the Bliesbruck-Reinheim European Cultural Park. Petra Weiss, the Director of the Federal Monuments Office, visited the cultural park together with the Head of the Conservation and Restoration Department, Johann Nimmrichter, and his deputies Murat Yasar and Christoph Tinzl to scan selected wall painting fragments from Austrian excavations.
The new head of the Saarland State Monuments Office, Simon Matzerath, is familiar with the possibilities of digital applications from previous projects: "DigiGlue impresses with the speed with which the fragments can be documented and processed for scientific purposes. Interest in the project remains high in Germany, and a number of sites from the Saarland still need to be recorded accordingly."
This site visit represents a further significant step in the application of digital technologies in monument conservation and offers the opportunity to gain valuable insights into the preservation and restoration of historical wall paintings, also for the Austrian region. The project is the first between Saarland and Austrian monument conservation organisations.
District Administrator Dr Theophil Gallo, Chairman of the Bliesbruck-Reinheim European Cultural Park Foundation, was also enthusiastic about the scope of the cooperation and research project: "The plan to turn Bliesbruck-Reinheim into a European digital science hotspot in the field of archaeology through the special "DigiGlue" project has come to fruition. I would like to thank the team at the European Cultural Park and the State Monuments Office for the outstanding realisation and am delighted about the interest from Austria, which has now also resulted in a collaboration."
For further information or media enquiries, please contact the Saarland State Monuments Office, Nicole Kasparek: [email protected].