60 Minutes, the long-running current affairs program by CBS News, devoted a report to the digitisation of the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi and to the work that Haltadefinizione is carrying out as part of Preserving Assisi, the platform that brings together ultra-high-resolution gigapixel images, virtual tours, 360° panoramas, 3D surveys and a digital archive in a single digital environment.

Bill Whitaker and the CBS crew spent several days following the Haltadefinizione team on location in Rome and Assisi, exploring how digital capture technologies can contribute to the understanding, conservation and transmission of cultural heritage.

The report goes to the heart of the work carried out in the Basilica: ultra-high-resolution photographic capture, gigapixel images, 360° panoramas, 3D surveys and experiments involving artificial intelligence. A range of different technologies that together are progressively building an increasingly comprehensive digital record of the Franciscan complex.

Preserving Assisi was created with the aim of producing integrated digital documentation of the Basilica of Saint Francis, its spaces and its major pictorial cycles.

To date, the project has produced more than 52,000 photographs, 12.9 TB of data and 113 final outputs, including gigapixel images and 360° panoramas. The work is still ongoing and will continue in 2027, with new acquisitions and the development of components that will contribute to the construction of the digital twin of the complex.

In the report, CBS explores this evolving dimension of the project, connecting ultra-high-resolution documentation, 3D modelling, digital accessibility and future possibilities for using the data in conservation and research.

From the photographs that saved the vaults to the digital twin

The story told by 60 Minutes is part of a history that goes back much further.

In the 1990s, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore carried out an extensive photographic campaign of the Basilica for the Mirabilia Italiae series. After the 1997 earthquake, those photographs took on an unexpected significance: the images taken before the earthquake were also used as a reference during the complex work of identifying and repositioning the pictorial fragments.

Today, almost thirty years later, Preserving Assisi takes up that same underlying idea with entirely new tools: documenting today’s heritage as accurately as possible so that it can be understood, studied and preserved in the future.

Behind the scenes with CBS 60 Minutes

During filming, the work of both the CBS crew and the Haltadefinizione team was also documented: access to the sites, digital capture, equipment preparation, filming inside the Basilica and discussions about the project.

The 60 Minutes report captures one phase of the project, while Preserving Assisi continues to grow, progressively adding new content, images and exploration tools.