An immersive narrative system that blends poetically into the architecture and gives voice to its history.
Walking Tales is an open-air museum experience set among the ruins of the Cannero Castles on Lake Maggiore, property of the Borromeo family. A narrative audio guide – similar to an audio book – leads visitors through stories, voices, and soundscapes that activate automatically through proximity, engaging their imagination. Along the route, they encounter augmented reality stations, interactive installations, and immersive projections. The technology is light, discreet, and non-invasive, blending naturally into the landscape. It mirrors the respectful approach of the conservative restoration by architect Salvatore Simonetti, which preserved the ruins in their untouched beauty, as authentic witnesses of history.
The idea behind Walking Tales was born right on the stones of the Cannero Castles, where a centuries-old inscription speaks in the first person. What if architecture could speak? What stories would it tell? From this question came the concept: using technology to give voice to the ancient stones and let them whisper, suggest and engage emotionally rather than explain. A subtle but very powerful narrative experience in harmony with the conservative restoration by Salvatore Simonetti which preserves the ruins as they are.
The core of the project is a location-based audio guide that activates automatically as visitors move through the site. With no need to press buttons or screens, stories emerge in sync with the pace of the walk, transforming the visit into a living audio book. The narration, conveyed by the voice of the Castles themselves and enriched by other historical characters, is accompanied by a soundscape designed to evoke scenarios that visitors have to fill in with their own imagination.
The experience includes immersive projections, augmented reality stations, and interactive installations. In the Mastio tower, video mappings recount key historical episodes. Elsewhere, animated symbols and visual loops illuminate the architectural and heraldic past of the fortress.
Walking Tales also speaks to younger visitors. Heraldry Game is a poetic treasure hunt guided by rhyming clues and playful riddles. Children are invited to find fragments of a noble crest hidden among the ruins – small 3D-printed and ceramic tokens that can be collected digitally. A way to engage with history through play, curiosity, and imagination.
Technology here is silent, almost invisible. It accompanies without interfering, resonating with the stones, letting the place speak for itself.
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