Abstract—The key role that space and spatial organization
of content play in memory has been taken very little into
account in the design of human-data interaction systems. Here,
we present a location based Augmented Reality application for
the exploration and visualization of historical files, which is based
on the argument that the embodied interaction with content by
moving in the real, physical space will enhance its recollection
from memory and comprehension. Our software architecture
integrates a historical 3D reconstruction with geo referenced
historical documents, as well as specific guidance components for
narrative generation. All content of the application database is
spatialized and can be navigated in a completely free/exploratory
mode or in a passive/guided mode. We present the results of
an experiment comparing spatial memory performance in the
two modes. Our data confirms previous findings in the spatial
navigation literature, suggesting that active exploration of an
environment leads to a better spatial understanding of it.