Treasure of Guarrazar
| Treasure of Guarrazar | |
|---|---|
Clockwise from top left: Spain; Province of Toledo within Spain; Guadamur within the province | |
| Material |
|
| Size | 26 votive crowns and gold crosses, belts, other items |
| Writing | Latin with Germanic lettering style |
| Created | 7th century Hispania |
| Discovered | 1858-1861 At remains of the monastery of Santa Maria de Sorbaces (?) at Guarrazar orchard & near it, Guadamur near Toledo, Spain 39°48′41″N 4°8′57″W / 39.81139°N 4.14917°W |
| Discovered by | A farmer (1858); José Amador de los Ríos for the Royal Academy of History & the Ministry of Public Works (1859) |
| Present location |
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The Treasure of Guarrazar, Guadamur, Province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, is an archeological find composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses that had originally been offered to the Catholic Church by the Kings Visigoths in the seventh century in Hispania, 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 with its blue sapphires from Sri Lanka and pendilia. 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 Guadamur, very close to Toledo, Spain. The treasure was divided, with some objects going to the Musée de Cluny in Paris and the rest to the armouries of the Palacio Real in Madrid (today in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain). 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 in the province of Jaén, consisting of fragments of votive crowns and crosses.