Frequently Asked Questions

The name of the project is PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360®.

Yes. PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® is a registered trade mark with its own visual identity.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® is a public project whose aim is to provide universal, free online access to Portuguese cultural heritage in digital format, including documentary films, 2D and 3D digitisation of movable cultural assets and virtual tours of museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites. Promoted by Património Cultural, I.P. and funded by the European Union through the Recovery and Resilience Plan, the project uses advanced digital technologies and multidisciplinary teams, ensuring high levels of detail, technical accuracy and scientific rigour.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® aims to help modernise the technological infrastructure of public cultural venues and promote their digital transition, contributing to safeguarding Portugal’s cultural heritage, expanding access and improving the quality of public enjoyment, increasing participation in cultural activities and reaching new audiences—understanding culture as an essential individual and collective value, of identity, belonging and citizenship.

The promoter of PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® is Património Cultural, I.P., a public institute of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, responsible for preserving, enhancing and promoting cultural heritage in Portugal. The project is coordinated by its Department of Digital Transition.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® has institutional partners, including public and private entities, regional coordination and development commissions, municipalities, public companies, religious entities and archives.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® began with European Union funding through the measure “Digitisation of Arts and Heritage” under the investment “Cultural Networks and Digital Transition” within the “Culture” component of the Recovery and Resilience Plan. Once the initial RRP?funded phase was completed, the project has been sustained by the promoter and partners.

European funding for PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® totalled €14,486,017.50, supplemented by Património Cultural, I.P.’s own investment.

In its initial phase, PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® covered 83 museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites across mainland Portugal, with the intention of continuously expanding this number.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® includes museums, palaces, monuments and archaeological sites.

No. PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® also includes other realities, such as the State Contemporary Art Collection, in addition to assets associated with museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites.

No. PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® also includes content dedicated to intangible aspects of Portuguese culture, such as traditions, customs and know?how, through documentary films.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® includes 2D digitisation, 3D digitisation and virtual tours, complemented by the production of documentary films.

Digitisation within PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® focuses mainly on movable cultural assets that form part of museum collections, are integrated in monuments or constitute assemblages from archaeological sites, spanning very diverse typologies.

The movable cultural assets to be digitised under PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® are selected by the teams of each museum, monument, palace or archaeological site to which they belong.

In the initial phase, PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® planned the digitisation of 59,500 objects, 65 virtual tours and 7 documentary films.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® digitisations are stored in arquiv@—the online archive of Património Cultural, I.P.—and made available online on the PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® PORTAL as they are produced.

Access to PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® digitisations is open, universal and free of charge, and is subject to prior authorisation only when for commercial purposes.

Yes. Documentary films included in PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® are produced in formats compatible with online, television and cinema.

Yes. The documentary films included in PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® are produced in formats compatible with online platforms, television, and cinema screenings.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® is intended for all citizens, with a special focus on culture and cultural tourism professionals, researchers, teachers, students and anyone interested in art, history and culture.

Yes. Although the initial phase still includes few final formats specifically aimed at children, the digitisations produced will in future allow the creation of products aimed at that audience, including gaming and augmented reality formats.

In the initial phase, the project does not include final formats specifically aimed at audiences with special needs; however, the digitisations produced will in future allow solutions such as 3D printing for tactile perception by blind and partially sighted audiences.

The progress of PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® can be followed on the “Making Of” subpage, dedicated to sharing the process, with a focus on teams, professionals and technologies.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® involves several multidisciplinary teams, and the number of professionals varies across phases depending on the nature and intensity of ongoing activities. This includes specialists dedicated to technical, scientific and technological areas, as well as the teams of the museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites included in the project.

The teams include professionals from information technology, conservation and restoration, photography, modelling and graphic design, with collaboration from social sciences and humanities researchers and participation by university specialists.

Digitisation under PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® uses technologies such as high?resolution photography, photogrammetry, laser scanning and 3D modelling.

The technologies used are among the most advanced. It is also highlighted that the most innovative aspect of the project lies in the working methodologies, hybrid solutions and management model that enable mass digitisation on an unprecedented scale in Portugal.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® digitisations are preserved in arquiv@—the online archive of Património Cultural, I.P.—with backups and redundant operation, within digital preservation policies.

Storage is carried out on physical servers in national territory, distributed across different geographical locations, duplicated for security reasons, with automatic backups and redundant operation.

Considering only its first phase, the digitisations produced by PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® reach around 500 TB.

Digitisation work began in October 2023 and, on 16 January 2025, the project was publicly presented; since then it has used the name PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360®.

No. The European start?up investment for PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360®, under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), ended on 31 March 2026; however, continuity is ensured by Património Cultural, I.P.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® will continue to evolve to include not only more digitisations, but also more partners, expanding to the greatest possible number of museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites, progressively becoming a collaborative, shared and benchmark project in safeguarding and disseminating Portugal’s cultural heritage.

One of the most innovative aspects of PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® is its scale; at that level, it is one of the largest digitisation projects ever attempted.

What stands out most is the ambition to provide universal online access to such a large amount of information, using the most advanced digitisation technologies.

By making available online—on an unprecedented scale—objects, buildings and places, traditions, customs and know?how that are testimony, repository, symbol and reference of Portugal’s cultural heritage, PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® contributes uniquely to promoting Portugal’s history, culture and identity, not only in Portugal but worldwide.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® enables new ways of seeing, feeling and experiencing thousands of objects, buildings and places, traditions, customs and know?how that are testimony, repository, symbol and reference of Portugal’s cultural heritage, helping to reach new audiences through almost unlimited access for anyone, anytime, anywhere.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® transforms research by enabling researchers to search, view, manipulate, zoom, save, print and share objects that previously they might not even have known existed. The ability to zoom into high?resolution digitisations is, in itself, a powerful study tool. The possibility of visiting virtually, at any time and from anywhere, any of the museums, monuments, palaces and archaeological sites available makes work easier and faster.

Making PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® digitisations available online gives teachers and students new ways of seeing, feeling and experiencing thousands of objects, buildings, places, traditions, customs and know?how that testify to Portugal’s cultural heritage, providing a powerful pedagogical tool to support teaching at all levels and contributing to more democratised, equitable and inclusive education.

PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® digitisations are a powerful everyday working tool for professionals responsible for safeguarding, preserving, conserving and restoring movable and immovable cultural heritage in Portugal—supporting decision?making, planning, monitoring and maintenance, and enabling new possibilities such as the creation of digital twins.

Through mass digitisation of movable cultural assets integrated in historic monuments, museum collections or originating from archaeological excavations, PATRIMÓNIO CULTURAL 360® contributes to greater protection of Portuguese cultural heritage, enabling the development of automatic recognition tools and integration into international collaborative projects to combat illicit trafficking of cultural property and works of art.

No. Experience shows that making content available online not only does not reduce in?person audiences, but contributes to their growth, serving as a powerful tool for promotion, mediation and audience development, as a complementary and non?competing product.