Google has used a gigapixel camera to give digital tourists the best view of St Paul's since the cathedral was built after the Great Fire of London.
Built in 1708, St Paul's Cathedral was the tallest building in London until 1962 with its dome reaching 365ft above the skyline.
The new project, carried out as part of the Google Cultural Institute project to increase access to the world's most important sites, includes more than 100 remarkable new views of St Paul's -- including ultra-high resolution photos inside, and new Street View footage.
The highest-detail pictures for the so-called "digital exhibit" were taken of the Quire Dome, and presented in the 'Glories in Gold and Glass' exhibition. The views of the mosaics, which are much older than the building, dating from the end of the 19th century, are exacting, on a scale that is difficult to see even if visitors climb the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery and another 271 up to the even higher Golden Gallery.
Google has also captured Street View images from the viewing platform on the outside of the dome -- on a typically grey London day -- and a walkthrough inside Sir Christopher Wren's model for the cathedral made in 1673 to persuaded King Charles II to actually build it.
Dr Heike Zech, who is senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, said that the project was "history repeating itself". "In Victorian times the mosaics were created by arranging thousands of minuscule glass pieces to form the picture. These small pieces of glass are called tesserae, and work in exactly the same way as digital pixels," he said. "The more pieces you have, the more detailed and life-like is the finished picture. In that sense the mosaics of St Paul’s are “gigamosaics”."
So far the Google Cultural Institute has captured images from 1,000 institutions across 70 countries. Most recently in London it launched a new tour of the British Museum, including photographs of 4,500 items from the collection.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
