Welcome — it’s great to have you here! My name is Frank-Arne Knoth; I live in southwestern Germany and am now 57 years old. During my “Sturm und Drang” years, I studied Classical Archaeology, Ancient History, Epigraphy, and Architectural History, and subsequently spent many years working as an excavation technician. Since the birth of my children, however, I’ve changed fields and have been successful in marketing ever since—initially, of course, in the analog world, but today almost exclusively in the digital realm.
When I was sailing with my sons on Lake Garda in the summer of 2019, between the two lockdowns, we naturally also visited the Grotte di Catullo. And I was shocked at how little opportunity interested laypeople have to truly understand this complex monument. The archaeological park’s museum education concept dates back to the 1990s, when it was considered acceptable to bore visitors with as many technical terms as possible. The signage in the ruins is old and, in some places, rusted beyond recognition. And whatever other information you can find about this monument is either unhelpful or, more often than not, simply incorrect.
My virtual museum project to reconstruct the Grotte di Catullo is an attempt to draw on all my enthusiasm, my expertise, and my professional experience as an archaeologist, building researcher, and technical draftsman, as well as a web designer and online marketing manager, to explain the Grotte di Catullo in a way that everyone can understand.
And since, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, I wanted to create a “walk-through reconstruction”—a kind of virtual open-air museum that you can explore on a PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, just like in a video game. 500 colorful 360-degree panoramas with lifelike background sounds, context-specific text, short video clips, and targeted audio guides are the best guarantee that this ambitious plan will succeed.
I hope you enjoy it!
Best regards from the Breisgau,
Frank-Arne Knoth