Google has teamed up with the English Heritage Trust to give users of its Arts & Culture app a rare opportunity to explore the annals of England's historical, architectural, and cultural heritage.
Spanning 5,000 years of history and taking in archeological artifacts, castles, forts and monuments, the in-depth exhibits celebrate the famous sites and the stories behind them by using the latest digital capture methods and offering users immersive VR experiences to virtually visit the historical locations themselves.
Through more than 30 multimedia exhibits and 10 editorial features on Google Arts & Culture, you can experience online almost 3,000 historic gems from the Prehistoric, Roman, Medieval, Tudor, Civil War and Stuart periods through the 21st century and from the perspective of the historians, experts and curators who manage the collections and heritage sites across England. You can explore by time period or, with the help of machine learning tools that recognize color patterns, you can sort through items by color.
Highlights of the vast collection include a zoomable high resolution image of the Elysium Closet in Bolsover Castle in never-before-seen detail, a Google Art Camera capture of "The Battle of Hastings" by Francis William Wilkin – the biggest ever at nine meters across – as well as a Google Museum View of 7th century monastery Whitby Abbey, which was one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The Google Arts & Culture app is a free download for iPhone and iPad available from the App Store. [Direct Link]
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