Diocese of Hildesheim
Diocese of Hildesheim: 389 Churches Captured in 360° and From the Air
The diocese stretches from the Harz mountains to the North Sea coast, while its administration sits in Hildesheim. So that staff know every church without driving there, we captured nearly all of the diocese’s churches in 360° and by drone and made them available in a tool of their own.
- Client
- Diocese of Hildesheim
- Industry
- Church, building management
- Churches
- 389
- Capture
- 360° + drone
- Access
- Custom tool
- Rollout
- Several years
A church that needs renovating is rarely where the planning happens. According to the diocese, the Diocese of Hildesheim stretches from the Harz mountains to the North Sea coast and covers around 30,000 square kilometers (11,600 square miles). Its central administration sits in Hildesheim. So we captured 389 churches in 360° for the diocese, plus every church by drone from the outside and from above. Anyone planning in the administration looks at the church on screen instead of driving there first.
At a glance
- Client: Diocese of Hildesheim
- Task: make churches across the entire diocese available remotely for planning and administration
- Scope: 389 churches, nearly every church in the diocese
- Capture: 360° panoramas inside and outside, drone footage of roofs and surroundings, before and after construction work
- Access: a tool developed by VRtual X, with individual logins for every staff member who needs it
- Rollout: in several stages over several years
The task: many churches, one administration
Whether a roof needs repairing, a heating system replacing, a room redesigning or an event planning, the experts in Hildesheim need to know what things look like on site. Where is the altar, how wide is the aisle, how do you get materials to the building, what shape is the roof in? For churches several hours’ drive away, every site visit costs a day. And phone calls with local staff stay vague as long as not everyone is looking at the same thing.
The solution is a database in which nearly every church in the diocese can be explored virtually. The recordings are produced to a high standard so that details are visible too: inscriptions, furnishings, the condition of walls and floors.
How a church is captured in 360°
We record every church inside and out from many positions with a 360° camera: the center aisle, side aisles, chancel, entrances and, depending on the building, side rooms meant only for the administration. The positions are linked into a tour in which you move from point to point and look around freely at each one. Every church also gets a series of drone shots.
Because the project covers hundreds of churches, capture is a well-rehearsed routine: appointments with the parishes, a fixed order of positions, consistent naming and post-production that gives every church the same look. That way, you find your way around the hundredth church just as easily as the first.
Try it: a tour of the Church of the Holy Cross
This is what a tour looks like, simplified here and limited to the public areas of the Church of the Holy Cross in Hildesheim. Drag to look around and click the circles to move on. The floor plan shows where you are standing and which way you are looking.
360° tour Church of the Holy Cross, Hildesheim
Pick a location on the floor plan or start the tour. Drag to look around, click the circles to move on.
From the air: roofs and surroundings
From the ground, nobody can see what condition a church roof is in. The drone shows it: every roof surface, the tower, gutters and flashing, plus the surroundings with access roads and open spaces. For architects and contractors, this is the basis for pricing quotes and preparing work before anyone climbs a scaffold. The administration sees at a glance where a crane could stand and how to reach the site.
Before and after: construction work documented
For renovations, we recorded the churches before and after the work. This captures the condition before any changes, as documentation requirements demand, and the result can be compared with the starting point room by room. If questions about the work come up later, nobody has to describe from memory what things used to look like.
A custom tool with individual logins
Most of the recordings are intended for internal administration. They are available through a tool we developed for this purpose. Every staff member who needs access has their own login. They pick a church, walk through the tour and view the drone shots, in the browser and without any additional software.
Because the recordings are produced to a high standard, the diocese also uses them to make some churches publicly accessible online.
What it means for the administration
According to the diocese, the database has added enormous value. Planning and coordination with local staff have become much easier: whoever is planning in Hildesheim and whoever is on site in the parish look at the same images and talk about the same spot.
- Fewer trips. Many questions are settled on screen, and site visits become more targeted.
- Better quotes. Architects and contractors price their work based on the recordings.
- Reliable documentation. The condition before and after construction work is on record.
- One inventory for everyone. All churches are in one place, in a consistent format.
What carries over
The approach works wherever many buildings in many locations are managed from one place: dioceses and regional churches, municipalities and state agencies with schools and office buildings, housing companies, branch networks or utilities with facilities spread across a region. Find out more about 360° tours on our page on 360° panoramic tours.
