The Colmar Treasure or Colmar hoard is a hoard of precious objects buried by Jews of the Holy Roman Empire at the time of the

Black Death pogroms There were a series of violent attacks, massacres and mass persecutions of Jews during the Black Death. Jewish communities were falsely blamed for outbreaks of the Black Death in Europe. Violence were committed from 1348 to 1351 in Toulon, Barcelo ...

. The Treasure was found in 1863 in the wall of a house in the medieval ''rue des Juifs,'' in

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...

, Alsace. It is believed that some of the items were sold by the discoverers before the full extent of the Treasure could be recorded. The treasures that survive are mostly in the collection of the Musée de Cluny, with a couple of items in the Unterlinden Museum. It was fully published only in 1999, when exhibited in Colmar. The Treasure includes one of the few surviving examples of a Jewish marriage ring, with the bezel in the form of a small building instead of a precious stone, in accord with the requirement in Jewish law that wedding rings be made as one piece. The Treasure includes silver coins, silver table ware, and gold and silver jewelry including elaborate belt buckles and fifteen silver rings. In 2019 the Treasure was exhibited at The Cloisters, part of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

References

{{reflist Treasure troves of Medieval Europe Culture in Alsace Treasure troves of France Medieval Jewish history History of Alsace Hoards of jewellery Jewish ceremonial art Colmar 14th-century artefacts

See also

References