The Albrechtsburg in the Saxon city of Meissen is the oldest castle in Germany and worth a visit. It describes itself on its website as a "trendsetter since 1471", and in fact there is a surprise right at the beginning: At the box office, every visitor from the age of six receives a tablet computer with their admission ticket. This takes you up an old Wendelstein into the Great Hall. Right next to it is the Große Hofstube. On felt slippers you glide over the polished parquet past intricately carved sculptures, thick columns and medieval-looking murals. But are they really as old as they look at first glance?
To find out, you scan the tablet at a time portal and hold it against the paintings. The tablet has a 360-degree function, so you can move freely in the room and at the same time go on a journey through time: It shows what the hall looked like in the late Middle Ages, specifically in 1493 during a court banquet in honour of Elector Frederick the Wise. Everything is depicted in detail, from a long table covered with steaming food with squirrels, capons and crab mush, the members of the court, to the festive decoration of the room with warming wall hangings and sparking torches. A click on individual persons and objects provides brief background information.
Interactive 3D models
A swipe to the right catapults the viewer into a second epoch – to the year 1840, when the Albrechtsburg had long since become the manufactory for the world-famous Meissen porcelain. The Great Court Room is unrecognisable: the medieval vault has been destroyed by fire, false ceilings have been installed, and the hall is used for the production of fuel capsules that protect the porcelain from dirt during firing. 3D models interactively show the individual steps of porcelain production.
Behind this tablet is Histovery, a pun on discovery and history: The French company was founded in 2014 and is based between the Tuileries and Place Vendôme in Paris. Its product, the tablet guide Histopad, is used in some of the most famous castles and museums in France, including the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Chambord and the Royal Saltworks of Arc-et-Senans. On display, it enlivens the bare walls of the Papal Palace in Avignon and the demolished ballrooms of the Parisian Conciergerie.
In Germany since 2020
Since 2020, the company has also been active in Germany. According to Schlösserland Sachsen gGmbH, Albrechtsburg Meissen is the first attraction in Germany to welcome its visitors with the augmented reality technology of the Histopad. In the meantime, the baroque Moritzburg has been added. Until January, visitors could use the Histopad in the Dresden Palais to navigate through the 22-year history of Notre-Dame de Paris in 850 detailed stations.
After the devastating fire of the cathedral, it will remain closed until 2024. Until then, the exhibition "Notre-Dame de Paris – l'Exposition augmentée", conceived by Histovery, will tour the world with stops in Dubai, Paris, Washington, Dresden, New Orleans and Shanghai. According to press spokeswoman Mathilde Michaut, the monuments with which Histovery cooperates attract around 3.5 million visitors every year.