Microsoft To Build Digital Replica Of Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral

Microsoft is teaming up with the French government to create a digital replica of Paris' Notre-Dame Cathedral, France's most visited monument, the US tech company's president, Brad Smith, said on Monday.

The 862-year-old Gothic masterpiece was reopened last December after a five-year restoration following a devastating fire in 2019.

A digital replica will serve as a record of the building's architectural details, Microsoft said. It will also provide a virtual experience for visitors and those unable to visit.

The cathedral became a symbol of Paris and France after Victor Hugo used it as a setting for his 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Quasimodo, the main character, has been portrayed in Hollywood movies, an animated Disney adaptation and in musicals.

Last year, Microsoft worked with Iconem, a French company that specialises in digitalisation of heritage sites, on a digital replica of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

"One of the things we learned from the work at St Peter's is how a digital twin can help support the ongoing maintenance of a building. Because you capture a digital record of every centimetre and what is there and what it's supposed to look like," Smith told Reuters.

"The ability to create a digital twin right now I think will provide an enormously valuable digital record that I believe people are going to be using 100 years from now," he said.

Since 2019, Microsoft has digitally preserved heritage sites and events including Ancient Olympia in Greece, Mont Saint-Michel in France and the 80th Anniversary of the Allied Beach Landings in Normandy.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)