WeRiseUp, the joint venture between PortAventura World and Vekoma, and the Tarragona City Council present the world’s first mixed reality experience in a Roman amphitheatre
Under the name The Roar of Tarraco, this experience aims to virtually reconstruct the legacy and history of the Tarragona Amphitheatre. Using free-roam mixed reality headsets, visitors travel 2,000 years back in time to discover the ancient capital of Hispania Citerior on a day of great games. During the experience, the visitor becomes a novicus, an apprentice gladiator, and is guided by Marcus Valerius Mesala, editor muneris of Tarraco, who reveals the secrets of the Amphitheatre and invites them to witness a gladiatorial combat and experience a fight against exotic animals from the arena itself.
In the words of Andreu Tobella, CEO of WeRiseUp, “The Roar of Tarraco represents a new way of bringing heritage closer to people by placing them at the centre and providing them with precise, interactive context. Thanks to the combination of technology and history, the Tarragona Amphitheatre becomes the starting point for a new category of immersive cultural experiences that bridge past and future.”
This project introduces a new way of interpreting historical heritage through an experience designed to complement the visit to the Amphitheatre, preserving its unique archaeological value at all times.
Drawing on PortAventura World’s expertise in mixed reality, as the first theme park to adopt this technology, and in collaboration with Spatial Voyagers, this new immersion allows digital content to be overlaid on the real environment without replacing it, so visitors always retain their perception of the original monument. No permanent physical intervention on the Amphitheatre was required during development. All operational equipment is temporary and reversible, designed according to minimal intrusion criteria to ensure the full protection of a site declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Furthermore, the involvement of specialists and historians linked to Tarragona’s heritage seeks to ensure the highest degree of historical accuracy in the reconstruction of the spaces and events depicted, offering a faithful representation of the Amphitheatre in its original state.
The Mayor of Tarragona, Rubén Viñuales, highlighted that “Tarragona’s Roman heritage is one of its greatest cultural and identity assets, and a key driver for the future. Incorporating mixed reality into the Amphitheatre visit allows us to tell our history in new ways, reach new audiences, and let visitors experience the monument in a much more immediate, accessible and exciting manner.”
The initiative thus reinforces Tarragona’s positioning as a unique cultural and tourist destination across the Mediterranean, introducing a pioneering offering capable of attracting new visitor profiles and complementing the existing heritage on offer in the region. The combination of historical reconstruction, spatial audio and synchronised narrative elements makes the visit an experience for audiences of all ages and types, from tourists and families to school and university groups. The tour is now available at a price of €7, additional to the Amphitheatre entry ticket, with a duration of approximately 12 minutes per visitor.
For more information, visit https://weriseup.ai/
Or visit https://www.portaventuraworld.com/en
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