A 13th century silver pyx is notable among the hundred exhibits-carved ivory caskets, exquisite cloisonne enamels, liturgical vessels and other items, many of them of the Romanesque style.
The show centres round the Freiburg cross- a precious gold and silver article made late in the 13th century for a Benedictine monastery near the city of Freiburg, Germany, on the site of holy hermit Trudeperth's humble abode. The Freiburg cross was made as reliquary to hold tiny fragments of the Redeemer's Cross, which a monk brought from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, c. 1280.
The Hermitage collection now on display belongs to the world's best in its kind.
The museum has put out a substantial and lavishly illustrated exposition catalogue.
