Stiftskirche St. Servatius und Domschatz

Description

The Quedlinburger Domschatz is housed at its historic location in the collegiate church of St. Servatius in Quedlinburg and comprises 63 objects from the possessions of the Stift Quedlinburg. These testimonies of sacred art are today displayed in two church rooms; fragments of the Quedlinburger Knüpfteppich are exhibited in the former convent building.

The northern exhibition room, known as the Zither, was inserted around 1160 into the northern arm of the transept and for a long time served as the treasury’s storage. An additional treasury in the southern area was created in 1972 because the historic room was too small for a modern public presentation.

Large parts of the collection originate from donations by the Ottonian ruling house; in the early Middle Ages precious reliquary treasures were regarded as expressions of political and familial importance, which is why the women’s collegiate was richly endowed. Following further historical upheavals, the 20th century saw a dramatic interim: in 1943 the pieces were moved for safety into a cave beneath the Altenburg. When Quedlinburg was occupied on 19 April 1945, individual works left the country and eventually ended up in the United States. After lengthy legal disputes and a settlement, ten of these pieces returned in 1992 in return for a payment of three million dollars. The objects had previously been scientifically examined and exhibited in Munich and Berlin; since 19 September 1993 the Domschatz has once again been almost completely on display in the collegiate church. Two objects, a rock-crystal flacon and a reliquary cross, are still considered lost.

Central exhibits include the Servatiusreliquiar, the Heinrichskamm, the Samuhel-Evangeliar, the Heinrichsreliquiar and the Wiperti-Evangelistar. The Servatiusreliquiar combines an ivory casket from the circle of Charles the Bald (c. 870) with late-medieval gold mountings and a Roman cameo; the goldwork was added around 1200, probably at the behest of Abbess Agnes II of Meissen. The Heinrichskamm is an early-medieval ivory comb with later gold elements and a retrospective reference to Henry I. Other outstanding objects are luxury manuscripts such as the Samuhel-Evangeliar with a richly decorated binding from 1225/1230, the Otto-Adelheid-Evangeliar with ivory carvings, as well as various reliquary shrines, gilded vessels and early Bible fragments.

Particular importance attaches to the five parchment leaves of the Quedlinburger Itala from the 5th century, which were found in bindings in the 19th century; further fragments of this manuscript are held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Sig. Ms. theol. lat. fol. 485). A television documentary in the series "Jäger der verlorenen Schätze" entitled "Der Jahrhundertraub von Quedlinburg" reported in 2007 on the search for and return of the removed objects.