On September 18, 2026, from 9:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., the Church of Santa Maria dell’Incoronata (Via Medina, Naples) will host the study day “Digital Innovation for Culture. Ecomic and Its Relationship with Local Experiences”, organized as part of Ecomic, the digital ecosystem for culture created by the Directorate-General for Digitization and Communication and the Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Digital Library of the Ministry of Culture, as part of PNRR Investment M1C3, “Digital Strategies and Platforms for Cultural Heritage”.
Among the projects presented is “Le Trame degli Aragonesi”: an urban gamification experience created by the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Naples. The game, accessible via smartphone, will soon be available to citizens, students, tourists, and other users interested in exploring the city’s historic sites and culture in a new and engaging way.
The project, from its restoration to its transformation into a gaming experience, will be presented by Barbara Balbi, a restoration officer and scientific coordinator of the Superintendence’s project. She has overseen the project on Aragonese funerary furnishings since its launch in 2019 and has guided its transformation into a gamification experience, developed with Lapej and Grifo Multimedia through an agreement with the Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage and with funding from the PNRR.
The project focuses on the funerary furnishings of Aragonese kings, queens, and court dignitaries preserved in the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore. The restoration made it possible to correctly identify each burial, stabilize the textiles, and catalogue them in the national system. This work has now given rise to an urban treasure hunt that starts at San Domenico Maggiore and takes participants through the city’s Aragonese sites, offering the chance to discover a heritage that has remained little known until now.
The morning opens with the presentation of the Ecomic platform. The institutional greetings at 9:30 a.m. will be delivered by Luigi La Rocca, Head of the Department for the Protection of Cultural Heritage; Andrea De Pasquale, Director-General of the Directorate-General for Digitization and Communication; Giuliano Romalli, Director of the Central Institute for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage – Digital Library; and Rosalia D’Apice, Superintendent of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Municipality of Naples. This will be followed by a presentation of “Le Trame degli Aragonesi” by Barbara Balbi, together with Lapej and Grifo Multimedia.
From 3:30 p.m., the afternoon session turns to restoration schools and their role in enhancing cultural heritage, with the Superintendence and Suor Orsola Benincasa University. A session is dedicated to the training construction site at the Church of the Incoronata.
The day will conclude at 6:00 p.m. with the concert “D’amore e guerra. Madrigali e villanelle d’amor cortese”, performed by La Vaga Aurora. The ensemble, part of the Società Polifonica della Pietrasanta, is dedicated to the historically informed study of Renaissance music under the artistic direction of Maestro Rosario Peluso. Since 2019, the group has brought a rare repertoire to Naples’ leading museums and art venues: from the madrigals of Vittoria Aleotti to the villanelles of the Neapolitan school, and the madrigals of the sixteenth-century composer Cimello, transcribed by Maestro Peluso himself.
