The Digitisation of the Cultural Heritage: Understanding the Requirements to Define a Methodology

Abstract

The preservation and transmission of knowledge in the digital era is often entrusted to the world of Information and Communications Technology. The advantage of this transition is the increase in the amount of information available via the web, while the disadvantages are mostly represented by the difficulty in accessing to this information or the accuracy and quality of them. In this context, the task of the academic expertise is to gain an intrinsic knowledge of the topic through experience in the field for clarify the best practices in the digitisation process. In the following article we analyse the role of digital technologies in the valorisation of architectural heritage through an analysis of the indications at European level and initiatives in two distinct cultural contexts, Spain, and Italy. After a comparative analysis of the various superordinate indications, we will investigate the strategies, methodologies and applications used in the two countries to digitise and promote their rich historical and cultural heritage also leveraging the experience of professor Palmero-Iglesias, who has been running a digitization project with European funds since 2019, called PROMETHEUS, which connects the experiences and skills of Italian and Spanish figures and others, to point toward a better understanding of best practices in the digitization process of cultural heritage in order to obtain a holistic digital future that can preserve the authentic values established in the place of origin with the objective of contribute to create a methodology in the field of digitisation, facilitating knowledge sharing and the potential development of international synergies. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.