Beyond the stones: underground Perugia comes back to life in virtual reality

What did Perugia look like two thousand years ago, when temples, streets and homes filled the Etruscan and Roman city? Perugia sotterranea was created to show exactly that: a project weaving together history, architecture, archaeology and virtual reality to bring back to light the invisible city hidden fifteen metres below street level.

The experience lives on the Isola di San Lorenzo, in the heart of Perugia. After a guided route of about 40 minutes through the underground chambers of the archaeological site, visitors put on a latest-generation headset: the fragmentary spaces they have just crossed recompose into a single coherent city, as it appeared in antiquity.

A journey through the invisible city

The 4K reconstruction restores temples, homes, streets and the domus of ancient Perugia, all the way to evoking the fire of the bellum perusinum of 40 B.C. The immersive content lasts about ten minutes, is available in five languages and ideally closes the visit, enriching it rather than replacing it.

"Our vision is to spread culture, knowledge and beauty through experiences that also enrich us emotionally," says Marco Pizzoni, CEO of WAY Experience. In this project the quality of the virtual reality content and the immersive storytelling guide visitors into the historic heart of the city, from its Etruscan origins onwards.

The project

Perugia sotterranea is curated by GENESI, with the virtual reality content produced by WAY Experience and the support of GDA Impact. A work that brought together archaeologists, historians and immersive content creators to turn data from the subsoil into a story to walk through.

The project is part of the map of immersive experiences that WAY Experience brings to the landmarks of Italian culture: you can find them all on our experiences page.