Current Exhibits

The cross shown here is silver with hallmarks from 1805 or 1809. Stamp marks on metalwork objects usually certified their precious metal content. Further stamps had to do with legal stipulations.

The cross has an eight-piece foot with a double hallmark in the rhombus containing a large ‘C’s and another with an ‘8’, denoting 8-Lot silver. In addition, there is a stamp with crossed keys. At the foot of the cross is an inscription: ‘1470’ in Gothic numerals.

On the front of the cross, the ends of the top half branch out into trefoils. Trefoils are a common element of the late Romanesque and Gothic style and consist of three, outward-pointing circular arcs with the same radii as inscribed in a circle.

Left and right can be found the single letters ‘F’ and ‘H’ (probably the owner’s initials). At the top is the inscription ‘IH. CROS’, the abbreviation for ‘Jesus Christ’. The inscription ‘INRI’ (‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’) can be found above a relic window in the shape of a Teutonic Order cross. The trefoil on the lower end is decorated with a black, wolf-like animal in a blazon. The ring at the top end once served to attach a securing tape to ensure the cross did not fall during prayer processions.

The reverse shows an engraving of St. Christopher with the Infant Jesus and has a removable piece of the True Cross under clear quartz along with the coat of arms of an unknown bishop.

The inscription ‘receptacle containing the confirmation from Rome of the authenticity of this piece of the True Cross’ can be found on the bottom plate. This was the certificate of authenticity of a relic issued by a bishop. The foot of the cross is hollow, presumably it once held the now-lost certificate. The processional cross comes from the Margarete Sperl collection. It was a gift from His Magnificence Günther Georg Bauer, privy councillor of Salzburg.

The silver screw-medal at the Mining and Gothic Museum dedicated to the Salzburg émigrés of 1731 and 1732 comes from the workshop of master craftsman Abraham Remshard in Augsburg.

The term ‘screw-medal’ refers to medal-like trinkets consisting of two parts threaded together. The production of screw-medals and screw-coins began in the late 16th century and continued until the first half of the 20th century.

Abraham Remshard’s workshop in Augsburg was one of the leading firms but screw-medals were also made in Vienna and Nuremberg.

Most of these objects produced after around 1730 are not only signed but contain valuable copper engravings, like the one at the Leogang Mining and Gothic Museum.

The front of the screw-medal shows an emigrating family in a landscape, with Salzburg’s mountains in the background. God the Father can be seen in the clouds overhead with a banner above him reading, ’Leave your Fatherland and friendship(s).’

On the reverse is King Frederick William I of Prussia receiving a delegation of Salzburg émigrés. Over this is another banner which reads, ‘The kings shall be your keepers.’ The coloured copper engravings inside the screw-medal show maps of Salzburg and Prussia as well as 17 scenes from the history of the Salzburg émigrés of 1731 and 1732.

The march of the 1731 and 1732 émigrés from Salzburg to East Prussia caused a great stir among the German principalities and also found its expression in the visual arts.

The two portraits show a man and woman in typical Salzburg dress. The man has a prayer book in his right hand in which you can even recognise the Bible passages. In his left is a walking stick and on his back, a large, wooden box in which the émigrés carried their essentials, needed on their long march. Even the details are precise; the man’s initials appear on his braces.

The woman is carrying her child on her back in a linen cloth. She too has a prayer book, in her left hand, and a walking stick in her right. Above her is the inscription ‘Salzburg Exile Anno Domini 1732’.

The origin of the portraits is unknown.