ИСТИНА

Visual turn and digital turn gave a strong impulse to development of virtual reconstructions of historical and cultural objects/artefacts. Digital heritage (digital preservation of cultural heritage) and virtual reconstruction based on 3D modeling are not the same. The first one is much more technical task, which demands complicated technology and experienced IT-specialists. The second case incudes gathering historical sources and its critical analysis to reconstruct ruined or disappeared object. Both approaches are based on 3D models. It should be noted that virtual reconstruction is now actively developing component of urban history which adds spatial and 3-dimensional representations of historical areas of cities to traditional social urban history. Virtual reconstruction of destroyed Moscow monasteries and surrounding historical city areas of the 17th - 19th cc. are the objects of virtual reconstruction in our project. The paper is focused on the role of historical sources in the process of virtual reconstruction; it contains typology of sources in the project presented.