Canals5D: Gouda Time Travel VR experience

Since this summer, Gouda has been enriched with Tijdreis (Time Travel), a kind of Google Street View of the past. At the IJssel riverbank, you can look around in the Disaster Year of 1672. And at the Hoornburg, you can go back to 1200, the time of the motte-and-bailey castle. Now there is a new layer: Gouda in 1350, full of wooden houses and beer barrels. A good moment for the festive inauguration of Time Travel with Alderman for Culture Thierry van Vugt and poet Chris Bellekom.

Time travel isn't really possible. But it is in Virtual Reality. From behind your computer, you can look around in the past. Or, even more exciting, on the spot with your own phone. What has disappeared becomes visible again. And as you look around, you can read about what you see, who lived, worked, or traveled here. For the ultimate experience, use the VR viewers: the somewhat strange-looking poles at the Hoornbrug and Het IJsselhuis. The Time Travel is therefore a website, app, and VR viewer all in one! This is unique in the Netherlands.

Goudse Tijdreis is an initiative of the Golda Archaeological Association and the Verborgen Stad Foundation and is widely supported by Gouda heritage organizations. The project was made possible by the Province of South Holland (Erfgoedlijn Oude Hollandse Waterlinie) and Gouda750.

The motto of the celebration of 750 years of city rights is 'Pass on Gouda'. And that is exactly what this project aims to do: make the past accessible in a contemporary way. For as many people as possible, including the youngest generation. And it continues to grow. In the coming years, new layers of time and new places will be added to the Time Travel.

Want to take a look around yourself? Visit canals5D.nl and go to Gouda on the map. Or download the Canals5D app for iOS or Android.

The combination of space (3D), time (4D), and information (5D) is called 5D reconstruction. This is the latest, most technically advanced, and most accessible way to discover history.