Bermeo | Interactive and Accessible Interpretation Centre for San Juan de Gaztelugatxe

A centre built so no one was left out

The San Juan de Gaztelugatxe Interpretation Centre was built on a clear premise: telling the story of this landmark to every visitor, whatever their language or abilities. All interactive and audiovisual content was developed in Basque, Spanish and English, so each visitor could choose how they wanted to experience it.

Bermeo Town Council placed its trust in DeuSens's Hyperexperience to develop this project, acting as the technology partner behind the tactile model, the on-screen interactives and the centre's audiovisual content. That same inclusive approach shaped the functional design of every application, adapted for people with visual, hearing or mobility impairments, combining a physical model with headphone narration, two touch screens and audiovisual pieces projected and shown on monitors into a journey designed for each format to complement the rest.

Climbing to the hermitage with your hands

The first stop on the visit used no screen at all: a set of headphones played a narration of the climb to the hermitage set against the sound of the sea and seagulls, voiced by professionals in the centre's languages. While listening to the story, visitors could run their hands over a physical tactile model — a relief map of the Gaztelugatxe peninsula — designed especially for blind and visually impaired visitors, following the shape of the surroundings and the hermitage at the pace of the narration.

The result was an experience with no screen involved at all, where touch and sound replaced sight without losing any of the place's emotional weight.

From kings and pirates to today's tourism boom

On a separate touch screen, an interactive timeline titled "Kings, pirates, pilgrims and influencers" invited visitors to swipe and tap through the milestones that shaped the history of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe: from the earliest documented references to the tourism boom sparked by its appearance in a well-known TV series, taking in sieges, fires and royal visits along the way.

Each tap on the timeline opened a window with a short text and illustrations about that particular milestone, turning centuries of history into a quick, visual journey that visitors moved through at their own pace.

A virtual climb in 360 degrees

On a second touch screen, named "241" — the number of steps separating the base of the headland from the hermitage —, a map of the area let visitors choose between two options: a straightforward video of the route, or a navigable 360° virtual ascent, with stops at viewpoints, panoramic views of the surroundings and access to the hermitage's interior, all controlled by the visitor's own finger on the screen.

This option let visitors who couldn't complete the physical climb — or wanted a preview of it — explore the path and the landscape in just as much detail as the site itself offers, simply by tapping and dragging on the screen.

A heritage told from within

Unlike the interactives above, the centre's audiovisual pieces — produced together with Eclipset — required no action from visitors: they were projected on a large screen and played on monitors placed around the room, filmed in Basque and the local Bermeo dialect and subtitled for other visitors. Interviews, aerial footage of the coastline and stories about the saint's festivities gave voice to fishermen, neighbours and devotees of San Juan, completing a portrait of the site told by the people who live it every day.

The centre became the perfect prelude to the physical visit: a space that combined listening, touch and viewing to prepare, move and inform every visitor before they set foot on the path to the hermitage.