A virtual cathedral for pilgrims in the Digital Age

In a computer lab at UCLA, the worlds of cyberspace and Medieval Europe merge.

A large group of computer engineers, scholars, students and other experts at UCLA have built a virtual cathedral -- a computer re-creation of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral as the building probably appeared when it was dedicated in northwest Spain in 1211.

Projected onto a screen curving nearly a half-circle, the image looks as if it belongs in the virtual world of a video game. Animated granite bricks rise up to form massive towers and Romanesque arches, and cartoon clouds fill a flawless royal blue sky.

“We can go anywhere we want, at any moment,” John Dagenais, chairman of the Spanish and Portuguese Department at UCLA, said as he “walked” visitors through the computerized cathedral. Actually, he did more than walk.

“If we could just proceed toward the altar at ground level and then we’ll fly up later on,” Dagenais said, giving instructions to undergraduate student Meghana Reddy, who was operating the simulation. “Let’s slide on down that column.” He turned to his visitors. “Prepare yourself for a big drop. Boom,” Dagenais said, as the images flew quickly by, creating a roller-coaster sensation.

For centuries, the real cathedral, which is still standing and is said to house the bones of St. James, rivaled Rome and Jerusalem as a destination for Christian pilgrims. In recent years, modern pilgrims have rediscovered Santiago; this year, government representatives said they expect that 200,000 pilgrims will pay homage at the cathedral.

Since it was dedicated in the 13th century, a series of ornate Baroque-style embellishments have been added to the cathedral, making the modern structure almost unrecognizable from the original.

Now, through the work of Dagenais and other members of the UCLA team, students and scholars are able to take a “virtual pilgrimage” that its creators say will help people understand the place that for centuries compelled thousands of pilgrims to set out on an arduous journey for months -- even years -- along often-dangerous roads.

In its virtual realization, the cathedral and parts of the surrounding town are projected onto the curved screen in a specially designed theater; visitors can wear 3-D goggles that create an experience reminiscent of a ride at Disneyland.

“Why don’t we just fly out that window and turn around and look back,” Dagenais said, continuing the virtual tour. The cathedral shrank away and the visitors were given a bird’s-eye view of the building’s facade: simple but impressive. The aerial view also offers a look at the last part of the pilgrimage route, known as the Camino de Santiago, to the cathedral.

There are many routes to the town, located in the Spanish region of Galicia, but the most common one stretches from the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border through northern Spain.

Modern pilgrims most often make the journey on foot or bicycle. Some walk only part of the road; an officially recognized pilgrim is one who walks at least 100 kilometers -- about 62 miles -- or bikes at least 150 kilometers, said Jose Suarez Otero, an archaeologist who is working with the Galician government to bring the computer reconstruction to Spain.

More than the cathedral, it was the pilgrimage -- the mass movement of people across Europe to a remote portion of Spain -- that inspired Dagenais to immerse himself in the history of Santiago de Compostela.

“I’m not a Catholic,” he said. “I’m interested in what Medieval people thought, what they believed, how they behaved. For me it’s this amazing human phenomenon that impresses me, that makes me think this is worth understanding.”

No one knows exactly what pushed so many people to Santiago de Compostela in the Middle Ages.

For many, it was the perception that St. James, one of the 12 apostles, had a special relationship with Jesus, experts say.

“He’s one of the closest to Jesus. Very often, Jesus would take only three people with him: Peter, James and John. They seem to be the closest,” said Charles Hilken, chairman of the history department at St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga.

Modern pilgrims come for all imaginable reasons.

“Some come for religious reasons, spiritual reasons. They also come for health, tourism, to see the world, to enjoy Spain,” Otero said. “I imagine it was the same even in the Middle Ages.”

Otero and Dagenais share a fascination with the centuries-old movement of people inspired by the cathedral erected on the site where many Christians believed St. James was entombed.

“One of the most important European cities of the Middle Ages was built around pilgrimage to the spot where an abandoned tomb was found. Perhaps that’s the most amazing thing about all of this,” Otero said.

The virtual cathedral has been in the works for seven years. Originally, Dagenais expected the reconstruction to inspire and thrill students studying the Middle Ages, in the same way he is enthralled by the period.

“But for them it wasn’t the thrill that I thought it might be,” he said. “They grew up in a different world. Now this kind of 3-D technology is pretty much, you know . . . they live in these computer spaces.”

Dagenais said he now realizes that “it’s not the 3-D experience that’s so important. I think what’s captured their imaginations is the opportunity to participate in constructing the model.”

Even after seven years, there is still quite a bit of work to be done, especially in adding details that might make the model look less like an animation, Dagenais said. He gives a laundry list of things he’d like to add:

“We’d like to create some lighting. The lighting now is very unnatural. It would be nice to have the details on the columns represented more accurately. Each one of them is different. The floor probably wasn’t all stone. It was probably a stamped earth, clay and mud floor. There were probably different levels to the floor that we haven’t represented well.

“This is a hypothesis. It’s not the Romanesque cathedral. It’s a series of hypotheses based on the best scholarly information we have.”

Even after the re-creation is eventually installed in a museum, the work will probably continue. Dagenais talks about creating exhibits representing the cathedral in different historical periods.

“The nice thing about this is we don’t have to stop. We can go back and change it. We can represent more than one idea at a time if we decide we want to.”

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paloma.esquivel@latimes.com

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UCLA is hosting a photography and art exhibit on the modern pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. Information is available at (310) 825-1036.