Open source software of the project "Maria Carolina AR – Che lo spettacolo abbia inizio!", funded in the context of Spoke 4 of project CHANGES

Maria Carolina AR is a storytelling-driven augmented reality mobile application designed to enhance the visitor experience within the Queen’s Apartments on the first floor of the Royal Palace of Caserta. The app invites visitors to explore the historical spaces through the perspective of Maria Carolina of Habsburg, reconstructing her lived experience within the palace at the time she inhabited it.

Through the integration of augmented reality and narrative design, the application guides users to observe specific details within the rooms (furnishings, decorative elements, and spatial feature) that were meaningful in Maria Carolina’s time. As visitors progress through the experience, they unlock digital content associated with these elements, each contributing to a first-person narrative voiced by the Queen herself.

A distinctive feature of the app is the collection of interactive 3D models linked to the discovered content. These models, representing both furniture and otherwise inaccessible spaces such as the Queen’s boudoir are gradually gathered by the user and stored in a personal digital collection. Once the visit is completed, users can re-experience these elements in their own domestic space, extending the museum visit beyond the physical site.

The narrative unfolds progressively, with each unlocked content fragment revealing a portion of the story. Only by completing the full path and discovering all associated elements can users access the entire narrative, thus fostering engagement, exploration, and a deeper connection with the historical context.