Reliquary from Limoges, a holy gift to the capital of the Second Bulgarian kingdom Tarnovgrad (Figure from West European reliquary from Church 22 in Trapezitsa fortress in Veliko Tarnovo)
Reliquary from Limoges, a holy gift to the capital of the Second Bulgarian kingdom Tarnovgrad (Figure from West European reliquary from Church 22 in Trapezitsa fortress in Veliko Tarnovo)

Summary/Abstract: Subject of the research is a gilt figure of a saint with enamel decoration (fig. 7) discovered in the fortress of Trapezitsa, the second citadel of the capital of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom – Tarnovgrad (figs. 1, 2). The height of the figure is 5.86 cm, its width is 2.56 cm, and its thickness at the edge of the hollow body is 0.2 cm. Today it is kept at Veliko Tarnovo Regional Museum of History. The stylistic and technological features of the figure reveal that it was made in the French town of Limoges, most probably during the first half of 13th century. The figure originally belongs to reliquary chasse, most probably from its lid. It was buried like a holy gift during construction of building in 1330’s Church No 22 together with other monuments of Christian art, most of them with Byzantine origin (figs. 3-6). The figure was put below the chest/cabinet or bench, next to the south wall of altar space of the temple. The reason for this monument of Christian art from the Catholic West to have reached the heart of the Bulgarian lands will remain unknown. Regardless of its path to Bulgaria, the item is an example for the fact that despite the differences and the growing alienation between the two main Christian doctrines in Medieval Europe, the communication between them has been preserved.

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