The Treasure of Guarrazar,

Guadamur Guadamur is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2008 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1819 inhabitants. On June 4, 2007 signed a twinning agreement with the towns of Vo ...

, Province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha,

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, is an archeological find composed of twenty-six

votive crown A votive crown is a votive offering in the form of a crown, normally in precious metals and often adorned with jewels. Especially in the Early Middle Ages, they are of a special form, designed to be suspended by chains at an altar, shrine or im ...

s and gold

cross A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a sa ...

es that had originally been offered to the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

by the

Kings of the Visigoths The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to ...

in the seventh century in

Hispania Hispania ( la, Hispānia , ; nearly identically pronounced in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, and Italian) was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula and its provinces. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces: Hisp ...

, as a gesture of the orthodoxy of their faith and their submission to the ecclesiastical hierarchy. The most valuable of all is the votive crown of king

Recceswinth Recceswinth (died 1 September 672) was the Visigothic King of Hispania, and Septimania in 649–672. He ruled jointly with his father Chindaswinth until his father's death in 653. Name His Gothic name is believed to have been *𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌺 ...

with its blue

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...

s from Sri Lanka and

pendilia Pendilia (singular pendilium; from Latin ''pendulus'', hanging) or pendoulia (the Greek equivalent), are pendants or dangling ornaments hanging from a piece of metalwork such as a crown, votive crown, crux gemmata, or kamelaukion, and are a featu ...

. Though the treasure is now divided and much has disappeared, it represents the best surviving group of Early Medieval Christian votive offerings. The treasure, which represents the high point of Visigothic goldsmith's work, was dug between 1858 and 1861 in an orchard called ''Guarrazar'', in

, very close to Toledo,

. The treasure was divided, with some objects going to the

Musée de Cluny The Musée de Cluny ("Cluny Museum", ), also known as Musée national du Moyen Âge – Thermes et hôtel de Cluny ("National Museum of the Middle Ages – Cluny thermal baths and mansion"), is a museum of the Middle Ages in Paris, Fr ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and the rest to the armouries of the

Palacio Real The Royal Palace of Madrid ( es, Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

(today in the

National Archaeological Museum of Spain The National Archaeological Museum ( es, Museo Arqueológico Nacional; MAN) is a museum in Madrid, Spain. It is located on Calle de Serrano beside the Plaza de Colón, sharing its building with the National Library of Spain. History The museu ...

). In 1921 and 1936, some items of the Treasure of Guarrazar were stolen and have disappeared. Some comparable Visigothic filigree gold was found in 1926 at

Torredonjimeno Torredonjimeno is a city and municipality of Spain located in the province of Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. According to the 2020 census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating inform ...

in the province of Jaén, consisting of fragments of votive crowns and crosses.Described and compared in Alicia Perea, "Visigothic filigree in the Guarrazar (Toledo) and Torredonjimeno (Jaén) treasures," ''Historic Metallurgy'' 40.1 (2006).

Description

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 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 were never meant to be worn by the kings. They were gifts to the church, to be hung above the altar. The most valuable remaining pieces of the find are the two royal votive crowns: one of King Recceswinth and one of King

Suinthila Suintila, or ''Suinthila'', ''Swinthila'', ''Svinthila''; (ca. 588 – 633/635) was Visigothic King of Hispania, Septimania and Galicia from 621 to 631. He was a son of Reccared I and his wife Bado, and a brother of the general Geila. Under Suintil ...

. Both are made of gold, encrusted with sapphires, pearls, and other precious stones. Suinthila's crown 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. These findings, together with other of some neighbors and with the archaeological excavation of the Ministry of Public Works and the Royal Academy of History (April 1859), formed a group consisting of: *

: six crowns, five crosses, a pendant and remnants of foil and channels (almost all of gold). *

Royal Palace of Madrid The Royal Palace of Madrid ( es, Palacio Real de Madrid) is the official residence of the Spanish royal family at the city of Madrid, although now used only for state ceremonies. The palace has of floor space and contains 3,418 rooms. It is the ...

: a crown and a gold cross and a stone engraved with the Annunciation. A crown, and other fragments of a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

with a crystal ball were stolen from the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1921 and its whereabouts are still unknown. * National Museum of the Middle Ages,

: three crowns, two crosses, links and gold pendants. There were also many fragments of sculptures and the remains of a building, perhaps a Roman

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a sa ...

or place of purification. After its dedication to Christian worship as a church or oratory, it housed a number of graves. A skeleton lying on a bed of lime and sand was found in the best preserved grave. Its well-preserved stone slate has a Latin inscription that mentions a priest named Crispín, dating from 693 (year of the Sixteenth Council of Toledo). This slate is now in the National Archeological Museum of Spain in Madrid. The inscription on the Sónnica cross, a piece preserved in Paris, gives an indication about the name of this church. According to some hypothesis, the monastery of Santa Maria de Sorbaces of Guarrazar served as a hideout for the real treasure of the court, Toledo churches and monasteries to prevent their capture by the

Islamic conquest The spread of Islam spans about 1,400 years. Muslim conquests following Muhammad's death led to the creation of the caliphates, occupying a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted by Arab Muslim forces conquering vast territories ...

Notes

References

* * * * * * *Perea, Alicia. ''El tesoro visigodo de Guarrazar'' (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), 2001. * File:Tesoro de Guarrazar (M.A.N. Inv.71204) 01.jpg, One of the votive crowns. File:Tesoro de Guarrazar (M.A.N. Inv. 71208 & 71209) 01.jpg, Votive crown and cross. File:Tesoro de Guarrazar (M.A.N. Inv.71210) 01b.jpg, Votive cross. File:Tesoro de Guarrazar (M.A.N. Inv. 71207 & 71211) 01a.jpg, Votive crown and cross. File:Gran Cruz de Guarrazar (M.A.N. Inv.52561) 01.jpg, The ''Great Cross''.

External links

The Art of medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Treasure of Guarrazar (p. 53-59) *

* Musée National du Moyen Âge, Hôtel de Cluny

{{Crux gemmata, state=uncollapsed Archaeological sites in Spain 7th century in the Visigothic Kingdom 7th-century works Treasure troves of Spain Treasure troves of Medieval Europe Visigothic art Germanic archaeological artifacts Christian art Medieval art Votive offering Gold objects Individual crowns Collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Madrid