Spatial authenticity in physical and virtual experiences of sacred heritage: the Sendang Duwur case

Sacred heritage is increasingly encountered through physical and digital environments, raising questions about how spatial authenticity is constituted across different experiential modalities. This study examines physical and virtual encounters with the Sendang Duwur Pilgrimage complex, a sacred living heritage site in East Java, Indonesia. Using a comparative qualitative design informed by the phenomenology of space and the living heritage approach, reflective accounts from thirty participants who used a screen-based 360-degree virtual tour were analysed alongside on-site reflections from five researchers. Thematic analysis identified eight interrelated perceptual dimensions: visual, tactile, thermal, acoustic, olfactory, kinaesthetic, emotional, and transcendental sacred atmosphere. Physical engagement constituted spatial authenticity through multisensory perception, bodily movement, temporal change, ritual participation, and social presence. Virtual engagement relied more strongly on visual cues, symbolic interpretation, imagination, memory, and anticipatory sensory associations. Spatial authenticity, therefore, emerges not as a fixed property of sacred heritage but as a relational condition co-constructed through distinct perceptual and phenomenological pathways across physical and virtual engagement. The study advances an integrated understanding of spatial authenticity as experienced through phenomenological relations, sustained through living heritage practices, and reinterpreted across complementary modalities. This conceptualisation provides a basis for hybrid authenticity and more interpretive approaches to digital heritage design.