EUreka3D-XR partners Bibracte and NTUA School of Electrical and Computer Engineering are jointly progressing towards the creation of two XR tools applied to the French archaeological site. The pilot is named "The AR narrative of the hidden side of Bibracte archaeological site" and is about visiting the archaeological site of the Celtic city of Bibracte (France) and being able to understand the process of excavations, the reconstructed aspect of buildings and the artefacts that were retrieved by archaeologists in different zones of the site, by following a map available on a mobile app.

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The main challenge of mediating with visitors to the Bibracte archaeological site is to enable them to see and understand the almost invisible remains and realities on the site. The EUreka3D-XR pilot and the tools developedby NTUA offer a more comprehensive and immersive response to this challenge, directly on the archaeological site.

Thanks to AR, visitors will be able to view 3D models of terrain and objects linked to their discovery context and enriched with complementary media. This visit will allow them to discover ‘the hidden side of Bibracte' by having access to missing elements, not visible in situ or not directly accessible to the senses and intellect.

In September 2025, technical partners National Technical University of Athens visited Bibracte for a first round of testing onsite and for progressing with the pilot's development in sight of the first prototype release in November 2025.

Field tests have focused on the AR Tour Experience application and the immersive rendering of the 3D models associated to the test point of interest in the Bibracte site, and while the the first results are encouraging, some adjustments still need to be done to improve the user experience, suggesting further development and problem-solving on the mobile application and its back-end platform, according to an agile and iterative methodology that is based on the feedback collected during the meeting onsite.

More evaluation of the prototypes is planned in the coming months, engaging various stakeholders internal and external to the project consortium. Basing on user feedback, the full joint team of NTUA and Bibracte is willing to offer an innovative tool serving heritage mediation, to advance the application of XR tools and offer a good user experience, aiming that both the tools and the scenario are useful for cultural heritage institutions.

Read more about the Pilot on project website: www.eureka3d-xr.eu

Blog Bibracte (French language): https://www.bibracte.fr/actualite/projet-eureka3d-xr-test-de-lapplication-ar-tour-experience