Middle Ages The inventory of the regalia during 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 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 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.
Whereabouts in medieval times Until the 15th century the Imperial Regalia had no firm depository and sometimes accompanied the ruler on his trips through the empire. Above all, during conflicts over the legitimacy of rule, it was important to possess the insignia. The following imperial castles and seats of reliable
ministerialis are known to have served as depositories during this time: , September 1790 •
Limburg Abbey near
Dürkheim (Palatinate) (11th century) •
Harzburg (11th century) •
Imperial Palace of Goslar (11th, 13th century) •
Hammerstein Castle (1125) •
Trifels Castle near
Annweiler (12th, 13th century, with interruptions) • Imperial chapel of
Haguenau (12th, 13th century, with interruptions) •
Waldburg Castle near
Ravensburg (c. 1220–1240) •
Krautheim Castle on the river
Jagst (probably 1240–1242) •
Kyburg Palace, today Canton of
Zurich in
Switzerland (1273–1322, with one interruption) •
Castle Stein, municipality of
Rheinfelden in the canton of
Aargau in Switzerland (about 1280, under
Rudolf of Habsburg) •
Alter Hof (Old Court) in
Munich (under
Ludwig the Bavarian, 1324–1350) •
St. Vitus Cathedral (Prague) and
Karlstein Castle in
Bohemia (c. 1350/52–1421) •
Plintenburg and
Ofen in
Hungary (1421–1424)
Committal to Nuremberg in Nuremberg, along the Pegnitz river, with the Holy Ghost chapel to the left
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 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.
Ceremonial decoration , dressed with the Imperial Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire. 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 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 II as
King of the Romans. He later wrote dismissively about the event in his autobiography
Dichtung und Wahrheit ():
Refuge in Vienna 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 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 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.
Nazi and post-war period in Vienna, National Archives Washington, DC 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 the
Katharinenkirche. In the
Second World War they were stored for protection from air raids in the
Historischer Kunstbunker () 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 the treasures were returned 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. ==See also==