M. Forte3, S. Pescarin3, E. Pietroni4, C. Rufa4, D. Borra2, D. Bacilieri1
1 Arche' srl, Bologna, Italy
2 No Real, Torino, Italy
3 CNR ITABC, Roma, Italy
4 ARACNET, Roma, Italy

The Scrovegni Chapel of Padova has been re-opened in March 2002, after a long closing period, due to necessary restoration activities on Giotto's frescos, conducted by Italian ICR (Central Institute of Restoration). Giotto's masterpiece was given back to visitors and citizens, but with some restrictions: the chapel is solely visible for group of 20/25 people and for a limited period of 15 minutes.
In order to get over this limitation, Padova Municipality decided to employ an empty and unused room, to be used as a multimedia centre for the visitors. The project was developed by Archè srl, under the technical direction of Sofia Pescarin, with the founding of an American Foundation (Wiegand Foundation). The multimedia room is planned to represent a cognitive space where the visitor can interact with the monument, with different approaches (active and passive fruition) through seven installations. The equip of CNR ITABC (Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural Heritage), directed by Maurizio Forte, was in charge of developing a Desktop Virtual Reality application (DVR) for the Chapel. With this application the visitor can interact with the frescos, through the 3D model of the Chapel (that is a three-dimensional, metrically reconstructed, and interactive menu itself), and can access all the complex information, made immediately comprehensive by virtual reality and the navigating metaphors.
This application is one of the first examples of DVR system, made really accessible to a various and numerous public, who can use it, autonomously and without a guide, just discovering the VR world and the content.
Key words: Desktop Virtual Reality, Museum, Fruition, Cultural Heritage, Giotto