Know Before You Go
The Dubrovnik Cathedral stands in the center of Poljana Marin Dri?, close to Rector's Palace. The Treasury is at the front of the cathedral and to the left.
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Dubrovnik Cathedral Treasury (Riznica Katedrale)
A wunderkammer of gold and silver reliquaries and ancient saintly bones.
The 12th-century Dubrovnik Cathedral in Croatia is home to an extraordinary reliquary museum containing more than 200 ornate gold and silver reliquaries.
The cathedral’s treasury, protected from visitors by a wall of glass, is like a curio cabinet for holy body parts. The beautiful gilded shelving was custom-built for relics of all shapes and sizes, with each bone fragment and mummified remain in its proper place. The reliquaries themselves are shaped like the objects they hold: arm-shaped reliquaries hold arm bones; leg-shaped reliquaries house leg bones; and head-shaped reliquaries hold skull-caps.
Relics of special note include the gold-plated arm, leg, and skull of Saint Blaise; what are said to be baby Jesus’s swaddling clothes (delightfully translated into English as Jesus’s diapers); and a piece of the true Cross.
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michelle
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