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51-605: Trifels Castle has been gradually restored since the 19th century and today replicas of the Imperial Regalia ( Reichskleinodien ) of the Holy Roman Empire are on display here. It is—together with Hambach Castle —one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The castle in Rhenish Franconia was first mentioned in a 1081 deed of donation, when it

102-796: A hoop crown (Bügelkrone) with a characteristic octagonal shape, was the coronation crown of the Holy Roman Emperor , probably from the late 10th century until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The crown was used in the coronation of the King of the Romans , the title assumed by the Emperor-elect immediately after his election. It is now kept in the Imperial Treasury ( Kaiserliche Schatzkammer ) at

153-643: A direct reference to the twelve stones of the Jewish high priest's breastplate or hoshen (Exodus 39:9-14) and to the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in the Revelation to John (Revelation 21: 19-21). The top central stone of the front plate is a triangular sapphire which replaces a famous stone, now lost, which was known as the Waise (i.e., the 'Orphan', because of its uniqueness), probably

204-517: A large white opal with a wine-red fire or possibly a singularly brilliant garnet or red zircon and the subject of medieval lore. The medieval theologian and philosopher Albert the Great wrote about it in 1250: The Orphan is a jewel in the crown of the Roman emperor. Because the like of it has never been seen elsewhere, it is called the "Orphan". It has the color of wine, of delicate red wine and it

255-454: A single arch (or hoop ) from the front to the back plate with the name and imperial style which may have belonged to Conrad II ("the first German monarch to call himself 'king of the Romans' ( Rex Romanorum )"), in seed pearls. On the left side of this arch these seed pearls spell out the words "Conrad, by the Grace of God" ( CHVONRADUS DEI GRATIA ), while on the right side they read "Emperor of

306-628: A triangular blue sapphire . The first definite pictorial image of the crown can only be found later in a mural in the Karlstein Castle close to Prague . It is also difficult to define for how long the Imperial and Ceremonial Swords have belonged to the regalia. Until the 15th century the Imperial Regalia had no firm depository and sometimes accompanied the ruler on his trips through the empire. Above all with conflicts around

357-481: Is as if the dazzling, white of snow penetrates the bright wine red and yet it remains dormant in this redness. The gem shines powerfully and it is said that it once even shone at night, but not in our time, but it is said to preserve the honour of the empire. When and why it was removed from the Imperial Crown is not known. The last mention of it is in an inventory ordered by Charles IV in 1350. The crown has

408-793: Is composed of two different parts. The greater group are the so-called Nürnberger Kleinodien (roughly translated Nuremberg jewels ), named after the town of Nuremberg , where the regalia were kept from 1424 to 1796. This part comprised the Imperial Crown , parts of the coronation vestments , the Imperial Orb , the Imperial Sceptre , the Imperial Sword , the Ceremonial Sword, the Imperial Cross ,

459-532: The Bible and inscriptions in cloisonné enamel in Byzantine "sunk" ( Senkschmelz ) style. Each of these enamelled plates is surrounded by blue sapphires and pearls in raised filigree settings. The other four plates, or 'stone-plates' ( Steinplatten ), are of various sizes and decorated solely with precious stone and pearls in raised filigree settings. The twelve stones on the front and back plates are probably

510-996: The Crown , the Imperial orb , the Imperial sceptre , the Holy Lance and the Imperial Sword . Today they are kept at the Imperial Treasury in the Hofburg palace in Vienna , Austria. The Imperial Regalia are the only completely preserved regalia from the Middle Ages . During the late Middle Ages, the word Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien) had many variations in the Latin language. The regalia were named in Latin : insignia imperialia, regalia insignia, insignia imperalis capellae quae regalia dicuntur and other similar words. The regalia

561-658: The Hezekiah plaque makes the most sense if Conrad commissioned the crown", since he had become "seriously ill during the Second Crusade " and was suffering from tertian malaria , which "hindered him [...] from carrying out his responsibilities from the end of August 1149 until April 1150." On the other hand, Reinhard Staats has "interpreted the Isaiah text as a reminder to every monarch that his days were numbered", while Denise A. Kaiser has "argued that Otto II commissioned

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612-821: The Historischer Kunstbunker , an underground vault of Nuremberg Castle . Led by art historian Lt. Walter Horn , who joined the US military after becoming a naturalized citizen, American soldiers recovered the treasures in August 1945. They were returned to the Oesterreichische Nationalbank in allied-occupied Austria in January 1946. They have been kept permanently in Vienna since that date. The Crown and Regalia were again on display at

663-486: The Hofburg in Vienna , Austria. The crown of eight hinged golden plates was probably made in Western Germany for the Imperial coronation of Otto I in 962, with what must be later additions which may have been made for Conrad II (since the arch is inscribed with the name CHVONRADUS ). However, some medieval historians argue that the crown may have been commissioned at a later date. Whilst acknowledging that

714-542: The Hofburg in 1954. The current display dates from a comprehensive refurbishment of the Hofburg's Treasury Vault in 1983-1987. The crown does not have a round shape but an octagonal one, a possible reference to the shape of crowns of Byzantine emperors and/or of Charlemagne 's Palatine Chapel in Aachen . Its eight hinged plates are arched at the top. Two strips of iron of unidentified date, riveted with golden rivets to

765-530: The Holy Lance , and all other reliquaries except St. Stephen's Purse . St. Stephen's Purse, the Imperial Bible , and the so-called Sabre of Charlemagne were kept in Aachen until 1794, which gave them the name Aachener Kleinodien ( Aachen jewels ). It is not known how long they have been considered among the Imperial Regalia, nor how long they had been in Aachen. The inventory of the regalia during

816-470: The Imperial Cross ( German : Reichskreuz ), the Imperial Sword ( German : Reichsschwert ), and the Holy Lance ( German : Heilige Lanze ). During the coronation, it was given to the new king along with the sceptre ( German : Reichszepter ) and the Imperial Orb ( German : Reichsapfel ). The Imperial Crown was the inspiration for the German State Crown designed in 1871 for

867-542: The Katharinenkirche . In the Second World War they were stored for protection from air raids in the Historischer Kunstbunker (English: historical art bunker ) beneath Nuremberg Castle . In 1945 the imperial regalia were recovered by American soldiers, based on an investigation by art historian Lt. Walter Horn , who had joined the US military after becoming a naturalized citizen. In January 1946

918-532: The Third Crusade . Handed over to Emperor Henry VI of Hohenstaufen , a period of three weeks of captivity at Trifels from 31 March to 19 April 1193 is well documented. According to one legend, Richard was found by the trobador Blondel de Nesle , who reported the king's location to his friends; in fact, Richard's location was not a secret. Trifels Castle lost its importance with the Interregnum. After

969-562: The Holy Roman Emperors as a sign of their imperial office, the form of which was perpetuated in the crown created for Rudolf II and now known as the Imperial Crown of Austria . An identical copy was made in 1915 by order of Wilhelm II for display in Aachen , where it is still kept in the Krönungssaal of Aachen Town Hall , built in the 14th century on the remains of Charlemagne's palace . There are also copies of

1020-684: The Imperial Regalia remained in the Saint Emmeram's Abbey in Regensburg, from where their transfer began to Vienna on 30 June. The committal there is verified for 29 October. The pieces from Aachen were brought in 1798 to Hildesheim and didn't reach Vienna before 1801. After the Anschluss of Austria to the Nazi Reich in 1938 the imperial regalia were returned on instruction by Adolf Hitler to Nuremberg, where they were exhibited in

1071-529: The Imperial capital in Vienna , where the Empire was abolished on 6 August 1806. The crown and other Regalia remained in Vienna until the Anschluss of March 1938, when they were brought back to Nuremberg (this time in the Katharinenkirche ) by Nazi Germany in line with their promotion of the city as repository of mythicized ancient German traditions. During World War II the crown was placed in

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1122-424: The Romans, Augustus" ( ROMANORU[M] IMPERATOR AUG[USTUS] ). Above the front plate and in front of the arch is a jeweled cross with an engraving of the crucified Christ on its reverse side, originally a pectoral cross said to have belonged to Henry II and only later attached to the Imperial Crown. It is probable that both the arch and cross were added during Conrad II's reign. There are three small holes on each of

1173-591: The arms of the German Empire and its Emperor. The latter, however, had four half-arches supporting a small orb and cross, rather than the single arch and front cross of the original. The changes were made to differentiate the Wilhelmine crown from the one kept in Vienna (outside the German Empire), while simultaneously invoking the powerful legacy of the Holy Roman Empire . A now-lost wooden model

1224-546: The chapel of the Heilig-Geist-Spital . Once a year they were shown to believers in a so-called Heiltumsweisung (worship show), on the fourteenth day after Good Friday . For coronations they were brought to Aachen or Frankfurt Cathedral . Since the Age of Enlightenment at least, the imperial regalia had no constitutive or confirming character for the imperial function any more. It served merely as an adornment for

1275-549: The contrary, in his monstrous articles of dress, with the crown-jewels of Charlemagne, dragged himself along as if he had been in a disguise; so that he himself, looking at his father from time to time, could not refrain from laughing. The crown, which it had been necessary to line a great deal, stood out from his head like an overhanging roof. The dalmatica, the stole, well as they had been fitted and taken in by sewing, presented by no means an advantageous appearance. The sceptre and imperial orb excited some admiration; but one would, for

1326-640: The coronation of the emperors, who all belonged to the House of Habsburg and since the mid-16th century had ceased to be crowned by the pope. A young Johann Wolfgang Goethe on 3 April 1764, was an eyewitness in Frankfurt during the coronation of the 18-year-old Joseph, Duke of Lorraine to King in Germany . He later wrote dismissively about the event in his autobiography Dichtung und Wahrheit (English: From my Life: Poetry and Truth ): The young king, on

1377-697: The crown and regalia in the Historical Museum of Frankfurt ; in the fortress of Trifels in the former Electorate of the Palatinate ; and in the Czech castle of Karlštejn , along with a copy of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas . The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire was selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €100 Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire commemorative coin , minted in 2008. The obverse shows

1428-479: The crown and that the Hezekiah plaque refers to Otto I's recovery from a serious illness." The first preserved mention of the crown is from the 12th century, assuming (as is probable) that it is the same crown. Most Kings of the Romans were crowned with it until the end of the Holy Roman Empire . The crown was the most important item of the Imperial Regalia ( German : Reichskleinodien ), which also included

1479-423: The crown is "dated most frequently as a work of the second half of the tenth century", John B. Freed states that "the inscriptions on the plaques have been dated for paleographical reasons as no earlier than the second half of the eleventh century", while the biblical verses that appear on three of the four plaques "were first cited in royal charters only in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries", and proposes that

1530-524: The crown was instead made in preparation for the imperial coronation of Conrad III in Rome (although Conrad was ultimately never crowned as emperor). Freed also cites as evidence the title that appears on the crown, which is identical to how Conrad was styled in a "letter he sent in 1142 to the Byzantine emperor" John II Komnenos , and claims that "the selection of the otherwise odd text from Isaiah 38:5 on

1581-464: The crown was made), but polished into rounded shapes and fixed en cabochon , i.e. put into openings that were cut into the metal, and fastened with thin wires. The effect is that when light shines in, the stones look as if they would shine from within. The crown is decorated with 144 precious stones including sapphires , emeralds and amethysts (blue, green and purple precious stones being proper to emperors in Byzantine imperial protocol), and about

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1632-695: The death of Emperor Henry V in 1125, his nephew Duke Frederick II of Swabia made the castle a place of safekeeping for the Imperial Regalia of the Hohenstaufen emperors until in 1220 Frederick II of Hohenstaufen moved them to Waldburg Castle in Swabia . Trifels Castle is also famous as the site where Richard the Lionheart, King of England was imprisoned after he was captured by Duke Leopold V of Austria near Vienna in December 1192 on his return from

1683-422: The emperors only spoke of them being "clothed in imperial regalia" without exactly describing which items they were. The crown can only be dated back to the 13th century, when it is described in a medieval poem. The poem speaks of the Waise (i.e., The Orphan ) stone, which was a big and prominent jewel on the front of the crown, probably a white opal with an exceptionally brilliant red fire, since replaced by

1734-651: The fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, the castle was pledged several times. In 1330, it was mortgaged to the Electoral Palatinate. It finally fell to the Dukes of Palatinate-Simmern and Zweibrücken in 1410 and decayed after the Thirty Years' War . Deserted and derelict, the ruin served as a stone quarry, as a result of which the late-Romanesque residential building almost completely disappeared and

1785-593: The great well arch, the Munich architect Rudolf Esterer designed a monumental rebuilding project following the model of south Italian Hohenstaufen castles, initiated by the Trifels Association and born by the cultural-political ideology of the Nazi epoch. The Nazi era reconstruction in 1938–1942 and later reconstructions in 1946–1959 (residential building), 1960 (1st castellan's house), 1963–1966 (heightening of

1836-436: The inside of the crown dates from the 17th century. Before this the imperial crown was worn over a mitre ; assuming this had the form of the Byzantine camelaucum , the arch would have caused it to bulge up on both sides, much as the embroidered ribbon from front to back on the eleventh century bishops' mitres caused their linen fabric to bulge up. Thus the Imperial Crown appears to be the earliest form of mitre crowns worn by

1887-479: The keep), 1972–1978 (safeguarding and enclosing wall) and 1988–1989 (2nd castellan's house) utilized in part the preserved walls from the Middle Ages or those found by archaeological investigations in 1935–1937, but also in many cases rigorously ignored the original medieval findings and created essentially an architectural reinterpretation of the 20th century. The present-day castle is in large parts not true to

1938-523: The late Middle Ages normally consisted only of five to six items. Goffredo da Viterbo counted following items: the Imperial Cross, the Holy Lance, the crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the sword. On other lists, however, the sword is not mentioned. Whether the medieval chronicles really do refer to the same regalia which are kept in Vienna today depends on a variety of factors. Descriptions of

1989-490: The legality of the rule it was important to own the insignia. As depositories during this time some imperial castles or seats of reliable ministerialises are known: Emperor Sigismund transferred the Imperial Regalia "to everlasting preservation" to the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg with a dated document on 29 September 1423. They arrived there on 22 March the following year from Plintenburg, and were kept in

2040-494: The medieæval original. It is characterized by a large well tower outside the ring wall, linked to the castle by a bridge. The surrounding rocky landscape is a popular venue for mountaineers. Imperial Regalia The Imperial Regalia , also called Imperial Insignia (in German Reichskleinodien , Reichsinsignien or Reichsschatz ), are regalia of the Holy Roman Emperor . The most important parts are

2091-402: The most important parts of the Imperial Regalia (crown, sceptre, orb, eight pieces of the vestments) were hastily evacuated by Nuremberg colonel Johann Georg Haller von Hallerstein from Nuremberg to Regensburg , where they arrived the next day. On 28 September the remaining parts of the jewels were also delivered to Regensburg. Since this elopement parts of the treasure are missing. Until 1800

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2142-468: The outer bailey for the most part. From about 1840, the Wittelsbach kings of Bavaria had the castle rebuilt. After Ludwig I of Bavaria had reconstruction plans prepared by his court architect August von Voit already in 1851, Georg von Schacky made a reconstruction drawing in 1881 and the Trifels Association (founded in 1860) had carried out structural measures in 1882, in particular the erection of

2193-440: The plates, hold the crown together. Before the addition of the rings the plates were held together by long golden pins, which made it possible to separate the plates and the arch for easier transport. Each plate of the crown is made out of a high carat gold , around 22 carats, which gives the crown a "buttery" colour, and is studded with pearls and precious stones. The stones are not cut into facets (a technique still unknown when

2244-693: The sake of a more princely effect, rather have seen a strong form, suited to the dress, invested and adorned with it. While French troops were advancing in 1794 in the direction of Aachen during the War of the First Coalition , the pieces located there were brought to the Capuchin 's monastery in Paderborn . In July 1796, French troops crossed the Rhine and shortly thereafter reached Franconia . On 23 July

2295-430: The same number of pearls. Similar gem-studded decoration was used for other precious objects of the early and high Middle Ages, e.g. reliquaries , processional or altar crosses ( crux gemmata ), or precious book covers such as those of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram and Codex Aureus of Echternach . The smaller four plaques, or 'picture-plates' ( Bildplatten ), bear pictorial representations of figures and scenes from

2346-409: The treasures were returned it to the Oesterreichische Nationalbank in allied-occupied Austria. They have been kept permanently in Vienna since that date. The Crown and Regalia were again on display at the Hofburg , the former imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty, since 1954. Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire ( German : Reichskrone ),

2397-464: The troubles of the Hussite Wars , Sigismund had them relocated to Visegrád and then to Nuremberg , where they were permanently kept in the Heilig-Geist-Spital except for the time of coronations (in Aachen until 1531, then in Frankfurt from 1562). In 1796, as the war with revolutionary France was threatening the entire fabric of the Empire, the Regalia were brought for safety to Saint Emmeram's Abbey in Regensburg , and from there in 1800 to

2448-413: The two side stone-plates from which probably hung chains with pendant jewels, known as pendilia . These were a feature of the now-lost crown of Byzantine emperors, as in the mosaic portrait of Justinian I in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna . Pendilia are still extant on the Holy Crown of Hungary , or the Crown of Constance of Aragon held in Palermo Cathedral . The present red velvet cap on

2499-416: Was held by a local noble Diemar, a relative of Archbishop Siegfried I of Mainz . From him Trifels passed to the Imperial Salian dynasty . Emperor Henry V in 1113 made it a Reichsburg (Imperial Castle), rejecting the inheritance claims raised by Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz . The archbishop, allied with Henry's opponent Lothair of Supplinburg , had to spend several years of imprisonment at Trifels. Upon

2550-510: Was held in various locations during the first few centuries after its creation, including Limburg Abbey , Harzburg Castle , the Imperial Palace of Goslar , Trifels Castle , the Imperial Palace of Haguenau  [ de ] , Waldburg Castle , Krautheim Castle , Kyburg Castle , Rheinfelden Castle , and the Alter Hof in Munich . In 1349, Charles IV took the Imperial Regalia to the Karlstein Castle near Prague , which he had just built for that purpose. in 1424, with Bohemia suffering

2601-430: Was made, but no actual crown was produced until the Empire's demise in 1918. As a result it remained a heraldic crown only, even though it was also represented as if a real crown existed on that model, e.g. at the Niederwalddenkmal (1871-1883), in Hermann Wislicenus 's "Apotheose of Empire" painting at the Imperial Palace of Goslar ( c.  1880 ), or on the Weidendammer Bridge in Berlin (1896). The Crown

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