Exhibition Shows the Golden Age of Transylvania through the Treasures of Princes

A temporary exhibition titled “The Gold of Princes – Representation of Rulers in Transylvania” will open on Tuesday at the Szekler Museum of Csík in Miercurea Ciuc (Csíkszereda, present-day Romania).

The exhibition was created with the collaboration of the Hungarian National Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts, the Hungarian Money Museum and Visitor Center, the National Museum of Transylvanian History, and the Szekler National Museum. The curators of the exhibition approached the theme through a unique concept of the representation of money.

In addition to the hundreds of coins, the exhibition will also present objects that can be found on the medal portraits of the princes.

The Hungarian National Museum recalls in a statement that in the middle of the 16th century, a new state, the Principality of Transylvania, emerged on the map of Europe from a part of Hungary that had been split into three parts. The leader of the state, the prince, used the power of representation to demonstrate the wealth and political power of his country.

“The exhibition highlights the coin itself, the object on which most people of the time were shown the image of the monarch, as well as a number of unique pieces of jewellery, decorative weapons, clothing, and accessories.

Through these treasures, the exhibition illustrates the fashion of the time, the representational habits of the princes, and the fact that the Principality of Transylvania was a country with a significant economy in the 16th and 17th centuries,”

the press release quotes Csaba Tóth, archaeologist and numismatist, one of the curators of the exhibition, as saying.

The exhibition is a novel undertaking, as it presents the material culture of the aristocracy of the Principality of Transylvania, a theme that has been undeservedly neglected but is all the more interesting.

The exhibition on the history of Transylvania reflects the representational needs of the period with treasures that have not been on display in Transylvanian museums in this selection. The visitor experience is enhanced by the fact that the exhibition is presented in the 400-year-old Mikó Castle, whose owner, Ferenc Mikó, was one of the most important Transylvanian overlords of the period, they added.

The exhibition will be open until July 15 at the Szekler Museum of Csík, and is planned to be on display at the Palace of Culture in Târgu Mures between August and November.

Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Csíki Székely Múzeum – Muzeul Secuiesc al Ciucului