Threeding and Artec 3D to Digitize Unique Artifacts from the Eastern Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky

Threeding.com, a fast-growing 3D printing marketplace and community, and Artec 3D, a leading developer and manufacturer of professional 3D scanners, today announce their latest collaboration to digitize religious artifacts from the Eastern Orthodox St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria. The project coordinator is Vesk Consult.
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As part of this partnership, Threeding.com is using Artec’s cutting-edge Eva and Spider scanners to capture various religious relics and other artifacts that have great historical significance for Eastern Orthodoxy. In return, the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral will receive free digital copies of all the 3D scanned artifacts, which it will use for academic and educational purposes. Several of the models will also be converted into printable 3D files and made available for download worldwide through Threeding.com.

Prior to this project, Artec 3D, Threeding and Vesk Consult successfully collaborated with several Eastern European museums to digitize their inventory of historical objects. Currently, there are hundreds of museum artifacts available for sale in a ready-for-print format on the marketplace. This is the companies’ first project that involves collaboration with a religious organization.

“The digitalization of artifacts is and will continue to be extremely important for historical preservation,” said Artyom Yukhin, president and CEO of Artec 3D. “This time, the objects we are working to safeguard not only are historical, but also have religious significance. Artec’s high-resolution, handheld scanners are the ideal tools for this effort, as their ability to capture details and textures with extreme precision will allow Threeding to accurately preserve and replicate these items for generations to come, without the risk of damaging them.”

“We are very excited about our project with St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,” says Stan Partalev, a co-founder of Threeding. “Previously, we focused solely on museums exhibits but this time we are scanning historical objects that are still in use and have spiritual beauty. Furthermore, we believe that this is among the first digitization project with a religious organization.”

Threeding and Artec 3D plan to continue this joint venture, with the goal of growing the world’s collection of digitized artifacts.

About St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
The St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a Bulgarian Orthodox cathedral in Sofia, Bulgaria. Built in Neo-Byzantine style, it serves as the cathedral church of the Patriarch of Bulgaria and is one of the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedrals in the world. The cathedral occupies an area of 3,170 square meters (34,100 sq ft) and can hold 10,000 people.