After a virtual jump from the Old Bridge in Mostar, researchers from the Sarajevo Graphics Group laboratory at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo, have completed another project and demonstrated the fantastic capabilities of VR technology in the presentation and promotion of cultural heritage, Klix.ba news portal reports.
This time, they created an application that, through virtual reality (VR), can experience the experience of passing through the Tunnel of Hope, which for three and a half years was the only connection of besieged Sarajevo with the rest of the world and is a key object for Sarajevo’s survival.
Visitors through the VR headset or online, watch digital stories of siege, runway run, entrances and Tunnel construction.
After learning the basic facts and passing the knowledge test, they have the opportunity to virtually go through the Tunnel and overcome the challenges of the low ceiling, step on the water and meet people coming from the opposite direction. After leaving the Tunnel, more digital stories await them.
The app is set in the Tunnel of Hope Museum, and a web version is available on the Internet.
From July 1993 until the end of the Siege in late February 1996, the Sarajevo War Tunnel was the only connection besieged Sarajevo had with the outside world.
It took more than six months to dig the tunnel and was done using pickaxes and shovels. The only source of light the workers had was provided by “war candles”, containers filled with cooking oil and fitted with a wick made from string.
On the night of July 30, 1993, the tunnel was finally completed, giving Sarajevo an outlet to the world. The 800-meter-long corridor is a little over a meter wide and has an average height of 1.5 meters.
Thanks to the tunnel, the beleaguered city regained access to telephone lines, oil supplies, food and electric energy.
After the war, about 20 meters of the tunnel became part of a museum which contains many items from the time of the Siege of Sarajevo – the longest-running siege of any city in modern history.
