Famous buildings recreated

Virtual tour of university town and Home of Golf’s historic landmarks

“Time travellers” have been given the ability to stroll around historic buildings at the heart of St Andrews University.

St Salvator’s Quad and Chapel can be seen in a virtual recreation revealing how the buildings appeared nearly 500 years ago before the religious changes of the Reformation.

Created by historians and computer scientists at the university, the project drew from images and manuscripts in the university’s special collections department.

It is the first phase of a wider project to digitally recreate the entire burgh of St Andrews as it appeared in 1559 – just before the citizens officially adopted Protestantism and set about transforming the community’s Catholic religious foundations.

The St Andrews 1559 project is being led by Professor Michael Brown and Dr Alan Miller while the digital model of St Salvator’s was created by Sarah Kennedy with historical advice from Dr Bess Rhodes and help from students.

This year marks five centuries since the event regarded as the start of the Protestant Reformation, when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses attacking the practices and doctrines of the late medieval Catholic church in Wittenberg.

Dr Rhodes said: “We selected St Salvator’s as the place to begin our reconstruction as a major landmark in the modern university and the town.

“It was, of course, also the scene of one of the most horrific events of the Scottish Reformation – the burning of Patrick Hamilton for his Lutheran beliefs.

“Particularly chillingly, Hamilton’s death was something the university was directly involved in – playing a role in the prosecution and conviction of this very young man.”

St Salvator’s College was founded in 1450 by Bishop James Kennedy as both an educational and religious institution, providing a rigorous academic training for young men who would primarily go on to serve in Scotland’s late medieval Catholic Church.

The St Salvator’s buildings were altered by the Reformation and by further rebuilding work in the 18th and 19th Centuries.

Although only small sections of the medieval college buildings survive, their glories can now be explored virtually.

The virtual recreations of St Salvator’s Quad and Chapel in 1559.