Ulcinj Museum heritage digitization

The context

The Ulcinj Museum holds a collection spanning Illyrian, Roman, Venetian, and Ottoman periods — artifacts that have survived two millennia and deserve archival-grade digital documentation for the next two. This project produced that archive and has been featured by Artec 3D as a reference customer story.

Approach

1. Artifact-appropriate capture — small, high-detail objects captured with handheld structured-light scanning (sub-100 micron accuracy). Larger architectural fragments captured with a faster, lower-resolution workflow.
2. Open-format deliverables — OBJ, PLY, glTF. No proprietary lock-in. Metadata aligned with CARARE standards so the archive can feed into Europeana-compatible heritage databases.
3. Public-first thinking — every artifact digitized became a candidate for web viewing and AR experiences from day one, not locked on a hard drive.

Deliverables

• High-resolution 3D models of priority artifacts
• Web-ready glTF versions for online viewing and AR
• Print-ready STL versions for replica production (education, tactile exhibits)
• Metadata and provenance documentation
• Staff training session on managing the digital archive

Impact

The Ulcinj workflow is now our blueprint for heritage institutions across the region. It has been cited as a reference project by Artec 3D, it demonstrates that museum-grade digitization is achievable on regional budgets, and it has opened doors to conversations with other cultural institutions across the Western Balkans.

For museums and cultural institutions

We offer a free 30-minute scoping call for any museum, gallery, or heritage site in the Adria region. We walk you through realistic budget ranges, recommended capture methods, and how to align with European heritage data standards from the start.

Get in touch or read our full case study blog post for more detail.