Pétermonostora – Mosan treasure from Hungarian soil

Prévia: escrita antes da abertura da exposição

On one plaque, three apostles stare up at the sky while angels announce that Christ has ascended. On the other, Christ and Peter argue over the Washing of the Feet. Both are copper half-moons about 24.5 cm wide, enamelled around 1170 by a goldsmith trained on the Meuse, and dug out of a ruined Hungarian abbey church in 2013. Mosan enamels almost never turn up in excavations.

The show is just these two plaques, lent from Hungary, set in the middle of the museum's Treasure Room next to the Stavelot portable altar and the reliquary gables from Maastricht. A reconstruction by Pazirik Ltd shows how they looked before the abbey was sacked in 1241. They were made a short train ride from Brussels and took about 850 years and a detour through Hungary to come back.

It is included in the general €10 ticket, so it fits easily into a visit to the permanent collection.