Project Title: Ici/Avant (Here/Before) – Oradour-sur-Glane Digital Memory Project
Acronym: N/A
Coordinator / Supervisor: Centre de la Mémoire d’Oradour (in partnership with Devocité)
Type of Funding: Public / Cultural Heritage Funding
Funding Source: French Ministry of Culture & Conseil Départemental de la Haute-Vienne
Dates: 2024 – 2025 (Official release and full integration)
Project website
Project Overview
The “Ici/Avant” (Here/Before) project is a cutting-edge mobile application designed to provide an immersive historical experience at the site of Oradour-sur-Glane in France—a village preserved in ruins as a permanent memorial to the 643 civilians massacred by the SS on June 10, 1944. This project serves as a “digital window” into the past, allowing visitors to visualize life before the tragedy.
Key Features & User Experience Augmented Historical
– Reality: The core of the project is the visual overlay of historical archives. By standing in front of specific ruins, users can see 3D-aligned historical photographs on their screens, revealing the shops, homes, and daily activity of the village as it stood between 1920 and 1944.
– Geolocation-Based Guidance: Using GPS technology, the app automatically triggers relevant content—audio narrations, text descriptions, and archival documents—as the user moves through the village-martyr, the Memory Center, and the newly rebuilt town.
– Multilingual Educational Content: To cater to the 300,000+ annual international visitors, the project provides expert-curated content in English, French, Dutch, and German, ensuring the historical context is accessible to a global audience.
– Preserving Oral History: The app integrates poignant audio testimonies from survivors and witnesses, bridging the gap between cold ruins and the human stories they represent.
Technical Execution & Development
The project was developed by the digital media agency Devocité in partnership with the Centre de la Mémoire d’Oradour.
Accessibility: The app is free to download on both iOS and Google Play.
Offline Functionality: Recognizing the remote nature of the site, the project allows for full content downloads, enabling the app to function without an active internet connection during the tour.
Project Significance
As the generation of direct survivors passes away, the “Ici/Avant” project ensures that the memory of the victims is preserved through modern mediation. It transforms the visitor’s journey from a passive walk through ruins into an active engagement with history, emphasizing the importance of peace and remembrance.