Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro
Bishop's mitre crusted with over three thousand diamonds, rubies and emeralds, at the heart of a seven-century treasure.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Museum of the Treasure of San Gennaro in Naples opens with goldsmith Matteo Treglia at his workbench in 1712, hammering gemstones into a bishop's mitre for a saint who had died over thirteen hundred years earlier. It traces the treasure's origin to 1527, when plague, war and a restless Vesuvius pushed the city to strike a bargain with its patron saint, promising a chapel guarded forever in exchange for protection, a promise kings, popes and ordinary Neapolitans kept adding to for five centuries. Gifts arrived over time from figures including Napoleon and the Bourbon queen Maria Carolina. Look closely at the largest stones set into the mitre and you can still make out the names of the donors who gave them.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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