Reliquary of St. Maurus
The St. Maurus Shrine (also St. Maurus Reliquary; Czech Relikviář svatého Maura ) was created from 1225 to 1230 in the Rhine -Meuse area in the style of the Cologne goldsmith's art. It is located since 1888 in the castle in Bečov Bečov ( Petschau ) in the West Bohemian region Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. In 1995 he attained the rank of National Treasure.
History
The St. Maurus shrine containing the relics of Sts. Martyrs Maurus, Timothy and Apollinaris and St.. John the Baptist. The first three martyrs were beheaded on the orders of the prefect Lampadius in the 3rd century in Reims. Her remains were probably initially in an older shrine. This came in the 11th century in the possession of the Cambraier Bishop Gérard de Rumigny. He left for this Shrine Church of St. John and St. Maurus build in Florennes, which no longer exists today. How and when the relics of St.. John the Baptist came into the shrine, is not known. It is possible that they were in this older shrine itself before.
Between 1225 and 1230 the family Rumigny was built by the current golden reliquary. He was named after the martyr Maurus, because it contains the whole skeleton of this while he holds of the other saints only individual bone parts. This shrine which is a masterpiece of the goldsmith's art, came after the French Revolution to the Collegiate of St.. Gangolf in Florennes. In 1838 he was bought by Alfred de Beaufort - Spontin for 2500 francs, and then to 1851 fully restored on its costs. After the presentation at an arts and crafts exhibition in Brussels in 1885, the shrine was in 1888 transferred to the castle Petschau / Bečov in West Bohemia, which was owned by the family Beaufort - Spontin since 1813.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945 it was clear that the family Beaufort - Spontin would lose the Bečov Castle and on the run to St. Maurus Shrine will not be able to take, they hid it under the floor of the chapel.
Only in 1984 the fate of the shrine was known. Back then submitted to an American businessman the Czechoslovak consulate in Vienna, an offer over U.S. $ 250,000 for the export of unspecified object of art. At the subsequent negotiations and Czech police detectives took part, which should find out which object it is and where it is located. After compressed suspected West Bohemia, they took, 4 November 1985 before a thorough and comprehensive search of the Bečover castle and palace complex. A day later, they discovered under the floor of the Gothic castle chapel to St. Maurus Shrine. Then the Prague Museum of Decorative Arts produced an expert report from the result, that it is the reliquary is a national treasure that must not be performed.
Although there was the shrine discovered in a bad and the dilapidated condition, only precautionary measures were first taken. A comprehensive and professional restoration was done after the political change in 1989. Responsible was the Heritage Institute in Pilsen, which carried out the restoration from 1991 under the supervision of two commissions, where experts from Aachen and Cologne were consulted. Since new restoration methods had to be developed, the recovery lasted eleven years. Since 2002, St. Maurus Shrine is back in the castle Bečov, where he can be visited in a safe-like exhibition space.
Description
The shrine in the form of a cottage or a Tumba is 140 cm long, 42 cm wide and 65 cm high. It consists of a wood core, in which the relics of Sts. Martyrs Maurus, Timothy and Apolinaris and of St. John the Baptist are. The gold work on the wood core consist of twelve reliefs, fourteen statues in gilded silver plates, precious and semi- precious stones, filigree and enamel decoration. In addition, antique gems were used for the decoration of Tumba, which at that time were already a thousand years old. The two gable ends has two, about 25 cm large statues of Jesus Christ and St.. Maurus. On the long sides there are six apostles and the corresponding six medallions show about incidents from the life of Sts. John and Timothy.