Mixed Reality and lost heritage: Reconstituting the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra through VR-AR convergence* Mauro Costa Couceiro 1 , Rui Lobo 2 , António Monteiro 3 1 Center for Social Studies - University of Coimbra 2 Center for Social Studies / Department of Architecture – University of Coimbra 3 University of Coimbra 1 maurocostacouceiro@gmail.com 2,3 {rlobo|antonio.monteiro}@uc.pt To fulfil the specific purposes of a three-year research project we are working on (to reconstitute the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra in 3D, and its situation in 1834, before the partial demolitions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries took place) we became interested in the possibilities of fusion between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality - an interactive experience generated by a computer that takes place inside of a simulated environment. These two emergent development fields gave birth to what was recently coined as Mixed Reality and the environments created can be analogous to the real world or they can be based in imaginary environments. We have two basic aims for this initial research: first to create the tools to provide knowledge and wisdom (knowledge with emotions) around lost heritage. The second aim, profoundly related with the first one, is to create a methodology and software capable to surpass a Turing-type Test for Virtual and Augmented Reality, where the observer could be immersed in an environment where virtual outputs and feedback can be greater or, at least, similar to the real world. Keywords: Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Lost Heritage, Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra * This work was financed by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COM- PETE 2020 - Operacional Programme for Competi- tiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), and by Por- tuguese funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia in the framework of the project 30704 (Reference: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030704) THE SANTA CRUZ RESEARCH PROJECT The Santa Cruz monastery, in Coimbra, of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine, founded in 1131, was one of the major religious houses of Portugal before the religious orders were extinguished, by decree of the new liberal government, in 1834. The follow- ing abandonment of the building and its application to the most diverse uses led to the progressive loss of important artistic and architectonic heritage. No- Papers - eCAADe RIS 2019 | 1