True Cross Reliquary Cult Artifacts

Timeline

1. c. 1190–1195Churches of France and Germany · FranceCross-shaped, box-shaped, and cabinet-shaped reliquaries became standardized in the transition from Romanesque to Gothic, often displaying wood fragments through small inset windows and accompanied by narrative reliefs of the Passion, used for Mass and public exposition of relics.
2. c. 1191–1198Acre and the Holy Land · PalestineDuring the Third Crusade, the Franks strengthened relic veneration in port cities such as Acre; newly made and gifted True Cross fragment reliquaries entered Western Europe through military supply and pilgrimage networks, intensifying competition among dioceses over the provenance of 'authentic fragments'.