Succes Story: How Villers-la-Ville Abbey attracts younger generations with augmented reality digital escape game

At theAbbaye de Villersfollow in the footsteps of the ghost of the monk Odelin, another example of the power of augmented reality for a tourist and cultural application!

Villers-la-Ville Abbey has transformed its visitor experience into a genuine journey back in time, captivating a younger audience thanks to an innovative application. Using augmented reality (AR), the abbey now offers an immersive experience that combines history, mystery and technology. This innovative project, developed by OHRIZON, is a cross between an adventure game and a digital escape game, where visitors use amagic slate to interact with a ghost in AR and solve riddles from his past. This new in situ game aims to appeal to teenagers and young adults, an audience traditionally difficult to attract to historic sites.

Villers-la-Ville Abbey, founded in 1146, is the largest monastic ruin in Belgium that can be visited. This historic site is located in the Walloon Brabant region, and is part of Wallonia's major heritage. The abbey is famous for its strategic role in the nearby Battle of Waterloo. Today, the abbey is a must-see tourist attraction that welcomes a wide range of visitors, but has sought to develop digital tools to reach a younger clientele.

Villers-la-Ville Abbey was faced with a major challenge: how to attract a young public, often disinterested in traditional visits to historic sites? In addition, old-fashioned methods of cultural mediation, such as audio guides, were struggling to capture the attention of teenagers and young adults. The aim was to design an immersive, modern and interactive application that would appeal to this hard-to-please clientele.

The challenge was also to update and revitalize the abbey's traditionally static content. The idea was to rethink the visitor experience by integrating interactive elements, 3D historical reconstructions and augmented reality, to enrich the experience.

OHRIZON responded to this challenge with an innovative digital mediation offering, the"Ardoise Magique", an Android tablet enhanced with augmented reality functionalities.

The project is divided into three types of visit for three audiences:

This technological solution has been enhanced by the integration of a variety of content:

What's more, both the application for group tours and the application for self-guided tours feature content management functionality, enabling the abbey manager to create and modify tour itineraries autonomously.

Young Odelin Pitrou, a journeyman builder, was murdered in Villers Abbey on Easter Day in 1298. Since then, his spirit has been imprisoned within the confines of the abbey.

To relieve his boredom, Odelin's ghost sometimes appears to visitors. If they wish, they can help him free his spirit. To do so, they must solve a seven-century-old riddle to discover who killed the unfortunate builder.

As they explore the abbey ruins, they'll discover that the young builder's tragic fate is linked to that of a famous monk from Villers, Gobert D'Aspremont. This mystery is linked to an artifact the latter brought back from the Holy Land when he took part in the Sixth Crusade.

Villers-la-Ville Abbey has seen a significant increase in visitor numbers, particularly among younger visitors. The project succeeded in attracting a younger audience thanks to its playful, immersive approach. The combination of augmented reality, interactive elements and a captivating, tailor-made scenario transformed a traditional visit into a modern, engaging experience.

Visitors expressed great enthusiasm for the immersive aspect of the app, including interacting with the ghost and solving historical riddles. The rate of engagement increased considerably, with particularly positive feedback from teenagers and young adults who had previously shown little interest in this type of venue.

Abbey managers can create and publish new discovery trails for both visitor applications. They can adapt, add and remove points of interest, as well as manage all content (points of interest, texts, images, videos, audio). Using the online manager, it's very easy to manage the application's content.

In this way, Villers Abbey can create new visitor experiences. For example, it will be easy to create a tour dedicated to Victor Hugo. It will also be possible to offer visitors an experience for special occasions such as Easter or other events.

The Villers-la-Ville Abbey project is a perfect example of how technology can reinvigorate the tourist and cultural experience. Thanks to the integration of augmented reality and a digital escape game, the abbey was able to attract a younger audience while offering an enriching experience for the whole family. This initiative has given new life to a historic heritage while meeting the needs of a contemporary clientele.

For any cultural institution wishing to broaden its audience and offer an innovative experience, the examples of Villers-la-Ville Abbey and Furie d'Alésia show that technology, and in particular augmented reality, offers a promising way of reinventing guided tours.

If you're interested in creating augmented itineraries or integrating digital solutions into your own tourism site, don't hesitate to contact OHRIZON to find out how augmented reality can transform your visitor experience.