Schatzkammer (Vienna)

The Imperial Treasury in Vienna, Austria is located in the Hofburg with its entrance at the Schweizerhof (Swiss Courtyard), the oldest part of the palace rebuilt in a Renaissance style under Emperor Ferdinand I. The Schatzkammer affiliated with the Kunsthistorisches Museum houses a collection of 1,000 years of treasures compiled by the Imperial House of Habsburg, including the medieval Imperial Regalia.

The Schatzkammer collections were set up from 1556 onwards by the scholar Jacopo Strada, court antiquarian of Ferdinand I. Maria Theresa had the Habsburg treasures moved to its present location, covering up the fact that the dynasty's assets had been largely affected by the expensive wars against rivaling Prussia. The Imperial Regalia arrived in the last days of the Holy Roman Empire around 1800 from Nuremberg, where they had been kept since 1424, in order to save them from the advancing French troops under Napoleon. After the Austrian Anschluss of 1938, the Nazi authorities took them back to Nuremberg, at the end of World War II they were nevertheless returned to Vienna by the US forces. The display was completely renovated in 1983-1987.

The Treasury is divided into two sections - secular and ecclesiastical. The secular museum contains a collection of royal objects:

On display are various valuable gems, including one of the world's largest emeralds. Part of the treasury are also the crown of the Transylvanian prince Stephen Bocskay and the two “inalienable heirlooms of the House of Austria”: a giant narwhal tooth which was thought to be the horn of a unicorn (Ainkhürn) and the Agate bowl from Late Antiquity which was thought to be the legendary Holy Grail; furthermore the Napoleonica artifacts of Napoleon II and his mother Marie Louise.

The ecclesiastical collection contains numerous devotional images and altars, mostly from the Baroque era.

Literature

External links

Media related to Weltliche und Geistliche Schatzkammer at Wikimedia Commons