As far as Belgian destinations go, Mechelen is a city not to be missed by history buffs. The tourism office has now added two new experiences which give visitors the chance to relive the Burgundian Renaissance, also known as Mechelen’s heyday.
Although we might never be able to time travel as many of us have dreamt about as a child, modern technologies are making it increasingly possible to get a good understanding of what life in the past must have looked like. Together with Visit Flanders, Visit Mechelen has used augmented reality to immerse tourists in 15th and 16th-century Mechelen, then at the centre of the Burgundian Netherlands.
The first new tourist experience takes place at the famous St. Rumbold’s Tower. An AR application brings a Burgundian spectacle from 1516 back to life. On the skywalk, two virtual reality viewers will teach you more about various Burgundian palaces, city oases and monuments that you can spot from the roof of the tower. Those who can’t climb up the 538 steps to visit the tower can ask for a tablet at the desk on which the AR and VR experiences can be viewed.
“We will not only let notables, but also ordinary people have their say during a listening walk of an hour and a half through the city,” alderman for tourism Björn Siffer told Belga news agency. “At the St Rumbold’s tower, people can revisit history via tablets, on top of the tower they can see what Mechelen looked like in the 15th century via augmented reality glasses.”
The second newly added tourist experience is called “If walls could talk”. This walking tour, which lasts anywhere between 1 and 2 hours, takes you on a stroll through the city with a wooden ear trumpet, which allows you to pick up conversations from the 15th and 16th centuries.
“If the Mechelen walls could talk, they would recount the turmoil among the beguines, chatter between friends and revelations about intimate conversations between the Mechelen people of yesteryear. It’s obvious that they don’t always know that you are listening in…” Visit Mechelen says. “While listening, an image emerges of Mechelen during its glory period.”
The tour is also made accessible to people with disabilities, including wheelchair users, the blind and visually impaired, the deaf and people with mental challenges. Moreover, tourists themselves decide on the price they want to pay, depending on what they can afford, with contributions from more generous visitors ensuring that people from Mechelen with financial challenges can also enjoy free time and culture.
