TREASURE CHAMBER VIENNA
The Imperial Treasury Museum of the Habsburgs
You know how stuff collects in your garage, from a lifetime of traveling and gifts and borrowed stuff you never gave back. Now imagine you’re a king or perhaps the ruler of all you survey, say…an emperor. Well, you’d probably put the best stuff in a museum, which it was what you get at the Schatzkammer, the treasure chamber of the Vienna Hofburg, the most glorious treasures of the Habsburg’s in the most amazing glitter garage in the western world. Among what you’d expect of one of the most extensive royal clans, you’d expect to find gold imperial crowns and sumptuous ceremonial regalia, but the Habsburg’s also acquired some of the most unique curios, including purported religious relics of notorious reputation.
Spear of Destiny and the Holy Grail
Two particular items in the collection have been the subject of much speculation over the ages since the days of Christ. The Spear of Destiny is what has become the nickname of a gold wrapped bronze spear point, said to be the lance of the Roman soldier, Gaius Cassius Longinus, who was part of the thankless detail assigned to crucify Jesus. The legend is that Longinus pierced the side of Jesus on the cross to see whether he was dead yet, the blood of Christ ran on the spear and splashed in the Roman soldier’s eyes, and his diseased eyesight was restored, the first miracle. The spear reportedly found in Jerusalem by the Knights Templars (see Templar Chapel Metz), was said to give the possessors of it the power to rule the world, hence the power of the Templars and successive possessors until the Habsburgs, though all the possessors eventually lost their power.
Even Adolf Hitler had the spear tip removed from Vienna to store with his mystical treasures in Nuremburg, until his end. There is even one story that General George Patton (see Patton Grave), responsible for its return, had a copy made. The spear point resides in the Vienna Treasure Chamber, known as the Holy Lance, though it is only noted as being Carolingian from the 9th Century, as it can't really be authenticated past that, perhaps a reproduction of a mythical item. Also, here, you’ve probably heard of Dan Brown’s literary conspiracy theory about the Holy Grail, but among the collection is at least one candidate, an agate bowl, captured during the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, in the crusaders march to the east. The bowl, which reputedly had letters in Greek which spelled the name of Christ formed from the natural veins of the stone was held by Burgundy’s Charles the Bold until passing to the Habsburgs as Holy Roman Emperor successors.
Secular Treasury
The Treasury Chamber of Vienna is divided into two sections, the Secular and the Ecclesiastical. The Secular Treasury houses the most important gathering of medieval royal objects in Europe, including the crown jewels of the Holy Roman Empire (the German kings), including the Imperial Crown handed down from Charlemagne, and the Crown or Emperor Rudolf II, who established the Habsburg rule as a competing entity to the Holy line and eventually became the Crown of the Austrian Empire. The regal items on display encompass the Imperial Orb and the Scepter, the Imperial Cross and Ceremonial Swords, including the Saber of Charlemagne (see Chalemagne's Cathedral), said to proof of the lineage of empire. Also here are the vestments and other precious artifacts of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the chivalric knights order founded in 1430 by Duke Philipp III, of Burgundy to rival the English kings’ Order of the Garter, founded by Plantagenet Edward III (see Windsor Castle), as well as one of the world’s largest emeralds, and the cradle of the son of Napoleon, the King of Rome, though his father didn’t stay in power long enough for that to be really true.
Ecclesiastical Treasury
This section presents the royal journey as the inheritor of the Catholic medieval world, through the history of religious art, and practices of piety and faith. The artifacts here tell the story of the medieval cult of relics, which often formed the basis of power in the dark and medieval ages, when pilgrims would travel miles to see them, with the wealth gathered from the ancient tourists, building great cathedrals and rising local dukes and princes to heights of great power and wealth, fueling the feudal system. The story follows the Habsburg Catholic history through Counter Reformation (see Reformation Museum Geneva), the post-baroque age of piety and Austrian folk religion.
While the Imperial Treasury Museum (Schatzkammer) is part of the Vienna Museum of Art History (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna) the treasure museum is still located in the Schweizerhof courtyard of the Hofburg, near the Sisi Museum and the Stallions, (okay it was part of the stables, yeah…a garage), where it has been since the end of the First World War in 1918.
Visiting the Vienna Imperial Treasury
The regular opening hours are Wednesday to Monday (closed on Tuesday) from 9 am to 5:30 pm, with last admission at 5 pm. A combined ticket for all the Kunsthistoriches Museums, including the art museum and the armor collection “Rustkammer” (see Armor Museum of the Habsburgs) is available. © Bargain Travel Europe
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THE EMPEROR TOMB - KAISER CRYPT VIENNA
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SMALLEST BAROQUE CHURCH - BREGENZ
