Treasure of Guarrazar

The Treasure of Guarrazar is an archeological find originally composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses that had originally been offered to the Roman Catholic Church by the Kings of the Visigoths in the seventh century in Hispania, as a gesture of the orthodoxy of their faith and their submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. [ [http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/pages/page_id18361_u1l2.htm Musée National du Moyen Âge, Hôtel de Cluny] : the Musée de Cluny conserves one of the votive crowns.]

The treasure was dug between 1858 and 1861 in an orchard called "Guarrazar", in Guadamur, very close to Toledo. The treasure was partitioned, with some objects going to the Musée de Cluny in Paris [ [http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Crown "Encyclopaedia Britannica" 1911, "s.v." "Crown"] ] ] and the rest to the armouries of the Palacio Real in Madrid (today in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain). Subsequently most of the Treasure of Guarrazar was stolen and has disappeared.

The most valuable remaining pieces of the find are the two royal votive crowns: one of King Reccesuinth and one of King Suinthila. Both are of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, and other precious stones. Suinthila's was stolen in 1921 and never recovered. There are several other small crowns and many votive crosses. There were belts in the original find as well, but these have since vanished.

The jewellery found at Guarrazar is part of a continuous tradition of Iberian metalworking that goes back to prehistoric times. These Visigothic works were influenced heavily by the Byzantines, but the techniques of gem encrustation found at Guarrazar were practised throughout the Germanic world and the style of the lettering was Germanic too. The crowns, however, were purely Byzantine in form and never meant to be worn. They were gifts to the church, to be hung above the altar.

External links

*fr [http://www.musee-moyenage.fr/pages/page_id18361_u1l2.htm Musée National du Moyen Âge, Hôtel de Cluny: Couronne votive] .

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