VR reconstruction of the church interior, with light beaming through a round-paned window beside a columned canopy.

Rižinice VR reconstruction

Trpimir's monastery and the Roman villa beneath it, rebuilt in VR

A fully immersive VR reconstruction of Rižinice in Solin: the church where Duke Trpimir's name was found, and the Roman villa that stood there before it.

Rižinice, in Solin near Split, is where a stone gable carved with the words PRO DUCE TREPIME(ro), "for Duke Trpimir", was found in 1891. The find led archaeologists to what is believed to be the Benedictine monastery Trpimir founded in the 9th century, on the site of a much older Roman villa.

For the City of Solin, working with archaeologists from the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments in Split, we rebuilt the site in virtual reality: a fully immersive experience for standalone VR headsets, in Croatian and English.

Through the ages

A 3D film shows the whole site changing over the centuries, in three scenes:

  • The Roman villa rustica. A central courtyard with a water basin, rooms around it, and terraces of olives and vines.
  • The late antique villa. A church is added to the north, with new rooms beside it and new walls around the garden.
  • Early medieval Rižinice. The villa lies in ruins, but the church still stands. There are three sarcophagi in front of it, and a cemetery of 55 graves in the old villa garden.
A render from the reconstruction: the church and the buildings beside it, seen from above, with wooded hills behind.

Inside the church

The interior is reconstructed as it may have looked in the 9th century: the altar under its ciborium, the chancel screen with Trpimir's inscription, the carved window screens, and stone benches along the walls.

The reconstruction follows the fragments found on the site, including pieces uncovered after 2011 that changed what the chancel screen is thought to have looked like.

Built with
  • Cinema 4D
  • Unreal Engine
  • Rhinoceros 3D
3DEducationalVRAnimation