Góra Ślęża (Zobtenberg in German), is a mysterious mountain located in Lower Silesia, a region full of treasures in South-Western Poland. Ślęża had been an important site of cult for centuries, with many cultures and nations adding their heritage to its whole. From ancient Lusatian Culture through Medieval kingdoms, until modern-day Poland, the mountain bears traces of many eras. The purpose of this map was to obtain a high quality depiction of the mountain in 3D, with English language description helping to interest the international audience with this unique place.
The whole work is designed to remind a fantasy-themed video game. The central part provides a brief introduction to the topic, as well as the main map itself. Light is omnipresent, reflecting the significance of the ancient Solar Cults for Ślęża, and areas surrounding it. Colorful lights symbolize different eras, that are easily tangible on the mountain’s surface. The timeline references can be established for every of the light colours, present on various points of interests. The key to decipher all the map lights is the timeline on the left. Various eras have been depicted as colorful, geological layers. Glowing layers indicate that an object with significant influence of a specific era is present on the map. Natural light glow indicates the hiking paths to the mountain’s top. The bottom part provides the history of each of the most important points of interest from the 3D model.
To create the map, a 1m resolution DEM has been acquired from geoportal.gov.pl. Then, various DEM sheets have been merged together in QGIS and exported in the TIFF format. From now on, the DEM has been processed in Blender. The creation of a georeferenced scene was possible thanks to the BlenderGIS plugin. To that, OSM-based data with the trails and POIs locations information has been added. Materials for covering the model and buildings have been designed manually. A ready 3D model of Ślęża, along with all the additional 3D-generated depictions, has been exported for final layout creation in Adobe Illustrator.
I’m really hoping that this work will encourage you to visit Ślęża and the rest of Lower Silesia!
Have a look at all the interesting details in this high-resolution png (15mb)
The map was created as part of the course Project Map Creation at TU Wien in summer semester 2024.
Student: Marcel Mateusz Siedlich