When heritage becomes fragile

In times of war, the destruction of cultural heritage is never accidental. It strikes at the heart of identity, erasing the stories and symbols that connect people with places. In the Ukraine, as well as anywhere else in the world, historic sites have suffered under the impact of ongoing conflicts. A growing number of initiatives are turning to digital tools as a way to protect what remains.

Utilizing the network of the UAAC (Ukraine Art Aid Center) – a collaborative pilot project surrounding the working group HerJUk (Jewish Architectural Heritage in Ukraine) set out to explore, how 3D-technology, art history and heritage preservation can come together to preserve a fragile piece of the country’s Jewish heritage. What began as a technical experiment has become a story of solidarity — of students, researchers, and professionals working together to ensure that the cultural fabric of Ukraine endures, even when its buildings are under threat.

Protecting memory beyond the physical

The collaborative project grew out of an urgent question: How can we preserve cultural heritage and its knowledge that may not survive a war?

Fig. 1: The former Synagogue of Novoselytsia, Chernivtsi region (Bukovinian Synagogues Catalogue, 2016, p. 43).

Historic buildings like the former Synagogue in Novoselytsia — a modest yet beautifully decorated house of worship built in 1919 — stand as rare witnesses to the once-vibrant Jewish life of Bukovina. Over time, many such sites in East Central Europe have fallen into neglect, and in recent years, conflict has deepened the danger.

Recognizing this, the working group HerJUk was founded in 2023, and started to organize several online meetings with key partners from the German and Ukrainian scholarly community. Together, they aimed to document and digitally preserve endangered cultural heritage as part of a growing movement for “first-response” digital preservation.

The project’s vision was both simple and ambitious: to create a detailed digital twin of the Novoselytsia Synagogue using 3D laser scanning and Heritage Building Information Modelling (HBIM). The digital twin would not only safeguard knowledge of the building’s architecture and decoration but also provide a foundation for future research, education, and — one day — a possible restoration.

From field scans to digital twin

Fig. 2: Point cloud data generated by SKEIRON (AI MAINZ, J. Gaidos, 2024).

The collaborative process was as international as it was interdisciplinary. On the ground in Ukraine, SKEIRON, a firm dedicated on the digital preservation of national heritage based in Lviv, carried out a comprehensive 3D laser scan of the synagogue in 2024. Their team captured every detail — of the rundown site from the roughness of the exterior brickwork to the delicate remains of the fragile ceiling paintings in the main prayer hall.

Fig. 3: Students at Mainz University of Applied Sciences working on the HBIM model (AI MAINZ, J. Lutteroth, 2025).

Once the raw point cloud data was acquired, the data arrived in Mainz, and became the focus of a hands-on university seminar in the summer term of 2025. Under the guidance of the AI MAINZ team, students worked to transform millions of data points into a functional 3D model using HBIM methods.

The modelling process involved segmentation and classification of the main architectural components. Particular attention was paid to the main prayer hall, whose rediscovered ceiling paintings — first brought back to light in 2009 — form the emotional core of the site. By integrating textures and surface data, the students created a vivid representation of the synagogue’s interior atmosphere.

Throughout the project, experts from HerJUk contributed their knowledge directly during the presentations of the students work. What emerged was more than a technical product — it was a collaborative learning experience bridging borders, generations, and disciplines.

A prototype for preservation

By autumn 2025, the team had produced a fully functional 3D model of the synagogue in its current state. The digital twin provides not only a geometric reconstruction but also embedded data layers that could be used to enhance the geometry with historic knowledge.

Fig. 4: 3D rendering of the synagogue’s prayer hall showing the ceiling paintings (AI MAINZ, D. Maksymchuk, 2025).

The prototype demonstrates how HBIM can be adapted for emergency heritage documentation — making complex architectural information both structured and sustainable. Just as importantly, it serves as a learning resource for students, who gain practical experience in digital heritage methods while contributing to real-world preservation.

The project could even go one step further. With the insight and knowledge from the Ukrainian experts on the history of the bukovinian jews, the digital twin was used as a base to create a hypothetical reconstruction of a historic state of the building, before its heavy alterations during sowjet times.

Fig. 5: Preview of the exhibition “Painted Prayers” at the University of Cologne (A. Lipińska, 2025).

Furthermore, Visualizations of both versions will be showcased as part of the upcoming exhibition “Painted Prayers: Forgotten Wall Paintings in Synagogues of Ukrainian Bukovina” at the University of Cologne in November 2025. Renderings, process documentation, and visualizations will guide visitors through the project’s digital reconstruction process.

Building networks of care

Beyond its immediate results, the pilot project Ukraine Heritage Aid – the Synagogue in Novoselytsia highlights a new mode of cultural cooperation in times of crisis.

In this network, institutions from different countries and disciplines share expertise, technology, and care. For Ukrainian partners, the project brings international attention; for students and researchers in Germany, it offers a chance to engage directly with living cultural heritage at risk.

This exchange embodies what digital cultural heritage work increasingly strives to be: collaborative, ethical, and human-centered. By combining local knowledge with advanced digital tools, the project turns preservation into an act of solidarity — a response not only to destruction but to the loss of memory itself.

Moreover, the initiative contributes to developing shared standards and workflows for emergency documentation, addressing broader challenges such as data interoperability and long-term archiving. In doing so, it adds to a growing European conversation on how universities and cultural institutions can respond swiftly to heritage threats in conflict zones.

Looking ahead

As the exhibition in Cologne opens in late 2025, the digital synagogue from Novoselytsia stands not only as a model of a building but as a model of cooperation. It shows what is possible when expertise, curiosity, and compassion intersect.

Looking forward, the project partners hope to expand their collaboration to other sites across Ukraine, refining their methods and deepening their ties. In the long run, the Novoselytsia pilot could become part of a larger digital archive of endangered Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe — a living record of places whose stories deserve to be told and retold.

Even as the physical walls of heritage are threatened, the digital heritage reminds us that memory can endure — pixel by pixel.

A special thank you for their contributions and support goes to:

UAAC (Ukraine Art Aide Center)
HerJUk (Working Group Jewish Architectural Heritage in Ukraine)
SKEIRON (3D-scaning and heritage preservation firm based in the Ukraine)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Piotr Kuroczyński, AI MAINZ (University of Applied Sciences Mainz)
Prof. Dr. Stephan Hoppe, Institute of Art History (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)
Prof. Eugeny Kotlyar, Department of Art History and the Department of Monumental Paintings (Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts)
Mykola Kuschnir, Director of the Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews (Chernivtsi, Ukraine)
Prof. Dr. Aleksandra Lipińska, Institute of Art History (University of Cologne)