Exploring Vienna #1: The Holy Lance and the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire

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On my recent expedition to Vienna, the capital of Austria, I startet my explorations with a visit at the Hofburg Museum. Strictly speaking I wanted to see the German Imperial Regalia, especially the renowned and mysterious Holy Lance, which allegedly gives the one that owns it overwhelming powers and world domination. (Seems, it doesn't work for Austria this much.)

The Hofburg was ones the residence of the Habsburg monarchy, for a long time the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and later the Emperors of Austria.

Now it is the residence of the Austria President and a huge museum. Part of it is the Imperial Treasury, where the Imperial regalia of the Holy Roman Empire are kept. I criss-crossed thought the chambers of the Imperial Treasury, heading directly to room 11.

In the center of the relatively small chamber was a cube of glass, which contains the famous crown of Karolus Magnus, the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

Let's take some closer look of the crown.

No, not this close. Go a step back.

Yes, much better. As you can see, the crown is not as glittering as crowns of later times. When it was created around 800 AD they didn't cut the gem stones in geometrical forms. They look quite raw. Also, unlike other crowns, this one contains on the side plates images with christian scenes form the Bible.

Besides the glass cube there was a painting of Emperor Karolus Magnus (or Karl der Große, as the Germans call him or Charlemagne as the French do), wearing the Imperial Crown.

But the reason for my visit in the Imperial Treasury was not to see the Imperial Crown, which is probably very heavy and not very comfortable to wear. I wanted to see the Holy Lance.

There it is. It seemed to be waiting for me to grab it and conquering the world. Between me and world domination was only a pane of glass.

I came as close as I could for watching it in full detail.

The golden sleeve had an inscription, that allegedly says: "+LANCEA ET CLAVUS DOMINI" (Lance and Nail of the Lord) - But for me it seem rather say: "GRAB ME".

The saying is, that a Roman soldier by the name of Longinus stabbed Jesus on the cross with this lance to see if he is already dead. So it should have came in contact with his blood. (Others are saying, that it was the lance of Mauritius, the leader of the Thebanic Legions.) The nail in the middle was allegedly used to fix Jesus at the cross.

Ok, that's the myth. - And then there is Austrian honesty and tidiness. Look at the description tag of the Holy Lance:

It says: "Carolingian, 750-800".

750-800 AD, not 31 AD, the year Jesus died at the cross. This age determination was based on a metallurgic analysis that was made in 1914 and additionally based on the fact, that this lance is not of the type of ancient roman lances, instead it's from the type of lances they used in the 8th century.

Imagine the guy, that made this lance around 750-800 AD. He maybe thought: "Damn, what does an old Roman lance look like? - Whatever, I just take a new one." And nobody realised this for a Thousand years.

Despite the fact, that the Holy Lance was fabricated in the 8th century, it was assumed for hundreds of years that it has magical powers. Whoever was in possession of the Holy Lance, was believed to be invincible. An many kings were indeed kind of invincible with it, like Henry I. in the battle against the Hungarians in 933.

Hard to believe that the lance is now only secured with a pane of glass. If the myth is true, fighting the police afterwards would be a piece of cake.

If you wanna try - here's the plan, that leads you to the Holy Lance: (Thank me later.)