At Iași.Travel Association, we believe that history should be experienced, not just read about. That’s why we embarked on an ambitious journey to bring the centuries-old story of Iași’s Princely Court to life through digital technology. Our project, “Cultural Tourism in the Digital Age: Discovering the Princely Court of Iași through Virtual Reality”, funded by the Iași Municipality, represents our commitment to preserving and showcasing local heritage in ways that resonate with modern audiences.
Building on Success: From Models to Virtual Reality
Our journey began in 2022 with the “Evolution of the Princely Court of Iași“ project, where we created physical scale models representing five distinct historical stages of the Court. The positive response from visitors and cultural enthusiasts inspired us to take the next step: creating immersive virtual reality experiences that would allow people to not just see history, but to step inside it.
In 2023, we launched “Cultural Tourism in the Digital Age: Discovering the Princely Court of Iași through Virtual Reality,” bringing together the most advanced digital tools—3D printing and VR scene creation—to tell the story of one of Moldavia’s most important historical sites.
This second phase was where our project truly came alive. We created five immersive VR scenes, each transporting visitors to a different moment in the Court’s history. But we didn’t stop at recreating buildings—we wanted to capture the atmosphere, the human drama, the lived experience of these historical moments.
Image generation with AI
This is where we pioneered the use of artificial intelligence in our work. We trained AI methods to generate period-appropriate characters and contextual elements, populating our digitally reconstructed spaces with people, activities, and details that bring each era to life.
Alexandru Lăpușneanu 
Bogdan Lupu (Vasile Lupu’s son) 
Mihail Kogălniceanu 
late 19th century lady 
King Carol I 
mid 17th century tatar lady
Scenes in Virtual Reality
The project takes us back in time, giving us the opportunity to discover and understand 5 essential historical moments that took place in the Princely Court of Iași:
– The Beheading of the Boyars during the Reign of Lăpușneanu (1564)
– The Wedding at the Princely Court of Vasile Lupu’s Daughter, Ruxandra with Tymish Khmelnytsky (1650)
– The Election of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1859)
– The Story of the Fire at the Administrative Palace on January 16, 1880
– The Unveiling of the Statue of Stephen the Great (1883).
By clicking on each link above, you will discover the scenes optimized for VR, but also for viewing on conventional screens (laptop, mobile phone) through the Kuula platform.
The project combines cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality, 3D drawing and artificial intelligence with historical research and the voice of a narrator. All this comes together in a virtual reality platform, allowing you to walk through the reconstructed scenes and interact with the virtual space, using virtual reality glasses. Thus, you will be able to experience local history in an unprecedented and fascinating way.
We invite you to take part in this captivating experience, which brings history to life and puts it within our reach in an innovative way. This project targets both the general public and the new generation of young people passionate about technology.
Testing the newly emerged technologies – video generation with AI
In the early months of 2023, as we were writing the project, a new technology was emerging: text-to-video generative AI models. Therefore, we were eager to put this technology to the test and open a debate in the historical, cultural and heritage sector of our city regarding the potential benefits, challenges, but also dangers of this new way of creating content.
Launching the Experience
We officially launched the project on October 21, 2023, at the Palace of Culture—the very site where the Princely Court once stood—in partnership with the National Museum Complex “Moldova” Iași. The response exceeded our expectations. Seeing visitors emerge from the VR experience with wonder in their eyes, having just “witnessed” history firsthand, confirmed what we’d always believed: that technology can create emotional connections to the past in ways traditional displays cannot.
Our Vision for the Future
This project represents our vision of what cultural tourism can become in the digital age. We’re not replacing traditional museums or historical sites—we’re enhancing them, making them more accessible, engaging, and memorable. By combining rigorous historical research with cutting-edge technology and multidisciplinary expertise, we’ve created a model that can be applied to heritage sites throughout Romania and beyond.
At Iași.Travel, we’re committed to continuing this work, exploring new ways to celebrate and share our region’s rich cultural heritage. The Princely Court may have evolved through five historical stages, but we believe we’re now entering a sixth: the digital age of cultural preservation, where innovation serves tradition, and where everyone can become a time traveler.
- TEAM
- Cosmin Ceucă – Project Manager
- Lucian Roșu – conference, workshop, group tours and scientific activities
- Lucia Eșanu – design, 3D modeling and texturing
- Tudor Boicu – 3D modeling and texturing, VR and AI tools
- Teodora Sandu, Ștefan Prepeliță – administrative and logistics
- Collaborators:
- Radu Baba – voice actor for VR and AI scenes
- Teodora Georgiana Mihăilă – guided tours
- Tiberiu Teodor Stanciu – architect, 3D modeling supervision
- Laurențiu Rădvan – historian, text and model supervision
- Erika Ivoniac – photographer, design and promo materials
- Special thanks to:
- Iași Municipality for co-financing this project
- History Museum team for hosting us
- all our volunteers for helping out
- all the visitors of this unique exhibition
This project was co-financed in 2023 by Iași Municipality through the annual non-reimbursable financing program (Law 350/2005)
Budget
83.335 LEI (16.788 EUR)
90% financing from Iași Municipality
10% own contribution
Media coverage
Follow-up activities
Participation at the annual Discover North-East Tourism Gala – Excellence prize for Digitalization in Tourism (DigitALL) – Tg. Neamț, 2023
Best Practice model presented at ERRIN Cultural Heritage & Tourism WG Meeting: UNLOCKING THE POWER OF AI FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE – Brussels, 2024
Best Practice model in CHARME INTERREG EUROPE project (Iași Municipality) – Iași, 2025