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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XL-5/W2, 2013 
XXIV International CIPA Symposium, 2 — 6 September 2013, Strasbourg, France 
DOCUMENTATION OF HISTORICAL BUILDING VIA VIRTUAL TOUR: THE 
COMPLEX BUILDING OF BATHS IN STRASBOURG 
M. Koehl* *, A. Schneider, E. Fritsch, F. Fritsch ?, A. Rachedi?, S. Guillemin? 
* Laboratoire ICube — UMR 7357, INSA de Strasbourg, F-67084 Strasbourg, France 
(mathieu.koehl, samuel. guillemin)@jinsa-strasbourg. fr 
? Service de l'Inventaire et du Patrimoine — DCTS — Région Alsace, F-67000 Strasbourg, France 
(audrey.schneider, emmanuel. fritsch, florent.fritsch, abde.rachedi)@region-alsace.eu 
KEY WORDS: Documentation, Heritage, Virtual tour, Panorama, Historic building information system 
ABSTRACT: 
The virtual visits exist for several years and rest on open source or professional software packages allowing to realize complete 
animations. The historic buildings are often fragile, sometimes difficultly and only partially accessible. It is the complex case of the 
building of the municipal baths of Strasbourg, France, object of this study. It is thus interesting to use the technologies of the virtual 
visits to document a historic building. If we content ourselves only of panoramic images, the visitor cannot take completely 
advantage of the site, especially if he does not know it in advance. It is a question of proposing to the visitor a guided tour, 
constrained, allowing him to move on to all the recommended places. Then to supply him further information on the most significant 
parts and to propose him images of archive to make comparisons. Of course, if he wants to walk alone in and around the building, he 
will have the leisure of it, but at his own risk. To realize such a visit, the paper shows the various necessary stages of elaboration, in 
particular by beginning with the writing of a scenario of the visit. This project written in several hands allowed to combine the 
knowledge of diverse actors working in the field of the inventory and of the heritage valorisation. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Context 
The historic buildings are a part of inescapable elements in the 
cultural aspects of a country. Some particular buildings had 
specific roles in a time not so distant and continue in their 
function even today. It’s the case of the municipal baths of 
Strasbourg, continually and currently in service. But as it is 
about particular buildings, their visit, their interpreting and their 
access is not any more very well-to-do. The idea of the 
implementation of a guided virtual visit was born to be able to 
make, remotely, the visitors of the deprived access benefit to 
these buildings. This paper aims at describing the various stages 
of the design, the acquisition then the implementation of this 
guided virtual visit. In main stages we so find 1) the writing of a 
scenario of guided tour, ii) the realization of shots of 
photographs, iii) the calculation of the panoramic images, iv) 
the conception of texts and accompanying documents, v) the 
choices of the symbolism (avatar, points of view, information) 
and finally the calculations of the definitive virtual visit to be 
able to spread them on an interactive terminal and on a web site 
of Department of the Inventory and the Heritage of the Region 
Alsace, France. This visit was thus written in several hands, by 
combining the skills of photographers, topographers, historians 
and specialists of the inventory and the heritage in decorations 
and in architecture. This project was realized within the 
framework of the valuation of "Neustadt" of Strasbourg, as 
historic district candidate in the UNESCO world heritage 
(Strasbourg.eu, 2013). The “Neustadt” appears among the urban 
extensions the most remarkable and best kept by the bend of the 
XIXth and XXth centuries in Europe. The candidacy to the 
  
* Corresponding author. 
385 
inscription on the UNESCO world heritage list aims at making 
recognized this exceptional inheritance. The virtual visit was 
realized in particular for an animation during the "Days of the 
Neustadt" (Région Alsace, 2013). 
1.2 History of the Municipal Baths of Strasbourg 
If the idea of the creation of a complex building of baths in 
Strasbourg sprouted from 1891, it was more seriously 
considered in 1894 by the City Council, chaired by mayor Otto 
Back, with the goal to improve the health service of a city in full 
population boom. A first project designed by the chief architect 
of the City, Johann Karl Ott, was presented in 1901. But it was 
the project developed by Fritz Beblo, appointed municipal 
architect and inspector of the buildings of Strasbourg in 1903, 
assisted by the architect Ernst Fettig, which was, at least, chosen 
in 1904. The project took into account the design of the whole 
former project of Ott. 
The building had to contain besides a popular municipal bath, a 
therapeutic section with medicinal baths, massage rooms and a 
private dental hospital. 
To bring the construction to a successful work, the 
"Strassburger Baugesellschaft A.G" has been endowed with an 
estimated 820 000 marks envelope from 1904. The construction 
was led from 1905 till 1908. The building, of a total surface of 
4765 square meter, was able to open its doors on August of the 
same year. 
Very fast, the inhabitants enjoyed the benefits of sunbathing on 
the terraces of the solarium, but especially the therapeutic 
virtues of "irish-russo-roman" baths. This treatment, mixture of 
three traditions, was recommended as well to sick as to healthy 
people as a precautionary measure. It consisted in alternating