Valls City Council in Tarragona is developing a new immersive 360-degree audiovisual experience, “Valls from the Air”, set to launch early this year. This project will allow visitors to discover the city's main heritage, cultural, and tourist sites through aerial and street-level views.
The initiative, led by the Tourism Department, has received financial backing from the Generalitat's Department of Culture due to its innovative approach. It uses high-quality images captured primarily by drones, alongside street-level recordings with 360-degree cameras and mobility systems like Segways, according to Valls officials.
This new tourist experience offers a bird's-eye view and an immersive journey through Valls, presenting the city from unique perspectives. The tour includes many emblematic sites, mostly within the Historic Centre. These are places such as the bell tower and Sant Joan church, Plaça del Blat, Plaça de l'Oli, Plaça del Carme, El Pati, the medieval walls, and the Jewish Quarter. Other points of interest include the Santuari del Lledó, the Popular Library, and the Teatre Principal.
Exploring Valls' Rich History
The 360-degree images, recorded in high resolution, are complemented by sound content and historical, cultural, and heritage explanations. This design aims to create an informative and accessible experience for all audiences. The project's goal is to provide a unique tool for tourist and cultural promotion, allowing visitors to explore Valls in an attractive and different way.
Users will feel as if they are walking through the streets of the Historic Centre, discovering architectural details, legends, and key moments in the city's centuries-long evolution. The Generalitat de Catalunya's Department of Culture provided a subsidy for “Valls from the Air” through a grant programme for cultural projects using immersive technologies. This programme supports new forms of cultural creation and dissemination through virtual reality and other new formats.
Production and Future Impact
The recording and production of this new tourist experience are being handled by Recursiva, a company with extensive experience in this field. Recursiva has implemented similar tourist projects in cities including Lisbon, Toledo, Córdoba, Mérida, Madrid, Girona, Tarragona, and Empúries.
This new initiative reinforces Valls' commitment to using new technological tools for heritage dissemination. It also strengthens the city's role as a cultural and tourist reference point in the region. The “Valls from the Air” project aligns with the municipal strategy to highlight the city's historical and cultural heritage, blending tradition with technology, and offering new attractions for both residents and visitors.
