Hackit!4EU was a two-day hackathon which took place in Limassol, Cyprus, as part of the EuroMed2026: Digital Heritage Summit Event hosted by the UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage at the Cyprus University of Technology and under the auspices of the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU.
The hackathon marked the culmination of the Twin it! Part II campaign, spanning the Polish, Danish and Cypriot Presidencies of the Council of the EU. The hackathon bought together 78 participants from 14 countries including cultural heritage professionals, artists, developers and students to explore new ways to use 3D cultural heritage data.
In total the professional track had 9 teams each brining a unique perspective to the challenge with topics ranging from integrating cultural heritage in to tourism, AI authentication and provenance to women in history, Memory Twins to digital story telling.
In order of their presentations were (link to presentation for the Summit livestream)
⦿ Put.is HeriTrace: A digital heritage curation platform for the age of AI
⦿ Street Stories: Every wall has a story to tell
⦿ Pankyprion LyKion Larnakas: Cyprus Heritage Quiz
⦿ Aphrodites’ Team: Aphrodites’ Trail
⦿ Fosteirastonmakaron Productions: CyprusPlanner – Redefining Travel through AI and Digital Heritage
⦿ The Pixelated Past: Guardians of the Island Treasures
⦿ Team Grand Tour: From Delos to the Deep – The Grand Tour Final Crossing
⦿ Heritage Malta: Ġgantija Temple Experience
⦿ The Artificial Team: HerStories of Antiquity
Winning Team
The first prize of €500 sponsored by the European Network Association was awarded to the team The Pixelated Past and their project their project, ‘Guardians of the Island Treasures’ created by Andy Beardsley (GB), Eleonora Dottorini (IT), Robert Faulmann (AT), Gianina Sontea (AT), and Márcia Vilarigues (PT). Their history-based game aimed at 10-15 year olds (but as Andy Beardley noted “When I go to a museum I’m the one who plays with the kids’ stuff more than the kids do”) reimagines the treasure hunt game trope to find and reunite 10 artefacts hidden in 10 castles around the island of Cyprus.
Honorary Mention
An honorary mention was given to team Fosteirastonmakaronion Luxury Productions for their project, ‘Cyprus Planner, AI-travel itinerary app’, created by Andreas Dimitriou, Christos Pitsillidis, Zacharias Prodromi, Stylianos Stylianou, and Efstathios Zaharias Zahri all high school students from Cyprus. Their app uses AI to create personalised itineraries combining cultural heritage sites and monuments, cultural events and route planning to help visitors optimise their time (including visits to your aunt!) while including an NFC based game to build a personal digital collection of memories of their trip using Europeana’s collections.
We congratulate all of the HackIt4EU participants an wish you all the best in your future endeavours. A full blog by European about the hackathon can be found HERE
