The reliquary of St. Maurus at Prague Castle

Prague Castle will exhibit the famous shrine of St. Maurus. The shrine made of gilded silver, gilded copper and decorated with nearly 200 precious stones will be shown in close proximity to copies of Czech crown jewels.

The shrine of St. Maurus will be borrowed from the National Institute of Monuments of Bečov nad Teplou Castle, where it has been found under dramatic circumstances 25 years ago.

The shrine of St. Maurus is a rare goldsmith monument in the Czech Republic. This object is comparable in value to the crown jewels, although it is older and includes more extensive artistic works.

The shrine of St. Maurus, only one of its kind in the Czech Republic, has a size of a baby sarcophagus and is referred to as a shrine of the type of a little house. Inside there are skeletal remains of St. John the Baptist, St. Maurus and St. Timothy. It has a rectangular ground plan in size of 140x42 cm and is 65 cm high. Original oak core has been replaced with a new walnut core. The shrine is decorated with a set of twelve reliefs, fourteen statues of gilded silver, gemstones, semi-precious stones, antique gems, filigrees and enamel.

The shrine was made to order of the Benedictine monastery in Belgian Florennes for relics of St. Maurus, St. Timothy and St. John the Baptist in the first quarter of the 13th century. After the French Revolution, the monastery was closed and the shrine became the property of Duke Alfred de Beaufort-Spontin, whose family lived in Bečov. At his own expense he had the shrine renovated approximately in the middle of the 19th century.
After the World War II the family of Beaufort had to leave the castle and hid the shrine under the floor in the chapel of the Visitation. Here, the reliquary was discovered by a team of criminalist František Maryška after a hard search on 5th November 1985. This search was based on a negotiating of U.S. businessman Danny Douglas, who wanted to buy an unspecified historical monument, hidden in the Czechoslovak Republic.

The discovery of the reliquary is considered one of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century in former Czechoslovakia. The shrine was in very poor condition in result of unsuitable storage and required professional restoration. The rescue took place from 1991 to 2002. The restoration is unique in the world. None of the remaining reliquaries of the type of little house was restored to such extent as the reliquary of St. Maurus.

Date of the event:
Nov 24, 2010 - Feb 27, 2011