Regional project · Citizen science research

Aragón Open Air Museum

A collaborative mobile app for exploring and sharing routes through Aragon’s urban heritage, castles and archaeological sites

About the project

Aragón Open Air Museum was a mobile app for Android and iOS for planning and following routes through Aragon’s urban, artistic and archaeological heritage, with information from historians and experts on each site.

The app had three sections: Urban Heritage, Castles and Archaeological Sites. Users saw their position on a geolocated map, or on the floor plan of the monument in the case of castles, and from there could access the different sites and even create their own route.

The Urban Heritage section, the largest, covered sites along the banks of the Ebro, the squares of Zaragoza’s old town and mural art, based on information from Zaragoza City Council’s Public Art Service. Content was organised into categories (from Antiquity to contemporary street art, sculpture, painting, and military, civil and religious architecture) that users could combine.

In its first phase, the app featured 157 sites across Aragon with historical notes, photos and videos, and much of the content was available in sign language.

Project objectives

The project was designed as a collaborative tool to promote Aragon’s artistic, historical and cultural heritage and as a participatory meeting point for its visitors. As a citizen science project, it let users plot and share routes, rate the places they visited, and suggest new sites or add information to existing ones through a form.

The role of Ibercivis

The app was developed by the Argos research group, from the University of Zaragoza’s Environmental Sciences Institute (IUCA), and the Observatory of Art in the Public Sphere, from the Heritage Institute, with support from the companies HPLab and Kampal and from Fundación Ibercivis.

Our activities

  • Support for developing the mobile app for Android and iOS.
  • Promotion of the app and its collaborative routes (May 2021).

Project details

Type of project

Regional

Duration

2019 – 2020

Funding

Government of Aragon and ERDF funds

Consortium

Argos research group (IUCA, University of Zaragoza) and Observatory of Art in the Public Sphere (Heritage Institute), with support from HPLab, Kampal and Fundación Ibercivis

Area

Citizen science research