How do I use this site?
There are two primary ways to navigate this website: 1) through the “Map of Northern Spain”; or 2) through the alphabetical site list on the home page. Both are clickable resources, which allow you to access pages dedicated to Romanesque monuments and sites across northern Spain. Some sites, Carrión de los Condes for example, have more than one monument. In this case you will be directed from the home page to a site page, which will then allow you to explore each monument individually.
Throughout the course of this project some sites have been better documented than others or just have more digitally-explorable sculpture. These have been marked with an asterisk on the home page site list.
Each site page has a gigapixel image(s), three-dimensional model(s), or both. Gigapixel images are ultra-high resolution images created by stitching together many photographs (sometimes hundreds). These allow the user to zoom in to view small details while maintaining an understanding of their position within a larger whole. The gigapixel images on this site can be viewed within the site pages, or (by clicking on the full screen icon on the left-hand menu) in a separate full screen view. You can either zoom by using the toggle on the left-hand menu or your mouse wheel, and pan by dragging with your mouse. The 3D models can also be explored within the site pages. First click the blue play button (keep in mind the models may take a minute to load). Click and hold to rotate the model, shift + click to pan, and zoom using your mouse wheel. If you are using a laptop or mobile device, the ways to zoom, pan, and rotate may differ depending on the model of your device and the system preferences you have set.
FAQ
Can I access the “Map of Northern Spain” on the home page through my own Google Map?
How were the gigapixel images and 3D models made?
How was this project funded?
Can I access the “Map of Northern Spain” on the home page through my own Google Map?
Absolutely. To do that, first, go to the home page. You will see that there is a star icon right next to the title “Map of Northern Spain” – click it to save it to “My Maps” in your own Google Map; after you have saved it, the star should turn yellow. After that, open Google Maps on your electronic device. If you are accessing Google Maps on your computer or laptop, navigate to the menu (top-left corner), and select “Your places”. The “Map of Northern Spain should be saved under the “Maps” tab.
If you are travelling in Spain and would like to visit these sites, you may find it much more convenient to access the “Map of Northern Spain” on your mobile devices. In this case, open the Google Maps app on your phone or tablet, and go to the “Saved” tab on the control bar. Then, you should find the “Map of Northern Spain” under the “Maps” tab (you may have to scroll left on the menu bar for the tab to show).
After selecting the “Map of Northern Spain”, the icons marking sites of interest will show up directly on your Google Map, and you can integrate this customised map while using the functions Google Map offers (e.g. find directions). If you click on a site icon and select “More Info”, you will see a link that leads you back to its RomanesqueSpain page with descriptions of the site and accompanying gigapixel and/or 3D resources.
If you wish to exit the “Map of Northern Spain” and return to your normal Google Map interface, simply select the map again, click “View Map Legend” and then click “Close”. The map should now be saved in your “Maps”, so you can revisit it directly within Google Maps any time you want later.
How were the gigapixel images and 3D models made?
The gigapixel images were created using photographs, sometimes hundreds, taken with a long-lens camera on a motorized pan tilt platform. The photographs were then stitched together, with the program Gigapan Stitch into what is essentially a very high resolution picture (tens to hundreds of millions of pixels). The images on this site were originally uploaded to the Gigapan platform, but now they are embedded into this site through GIGAmacro. The 3D models were created using the program 123D Catch. They are embedded into this site through Sketchfab. The photographs for both were taken on a Canon EOS 5D mark iii camera with either a 24-105mm or 300mm lens.
How was this project funded?
The imaging on this site is thanks in part to the University of Pennsylvania Digital Humanities Forum and Price Lab for the Digital Humanities, which provided funding through a Project Incubation grant. Thanks are also due to the University of Pennsylvania History of Art Department and the Penfield Endowment. The project has also received the Delaware Valley Medieval Association's first Digital Project Prize.