Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: bust reliquary

Seville was a Roman "colonia" since 45BC. The important city got looted by the Vandals in 428 and developed into a Bishopric seat under Visigothic rule. After the Moors had defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete, the conquered Seville and made it the capital of a province. Normans devastated Seville in 844 but Seville got rebuilt and flourished under the different Moorish dynasties. In 1248 Seville was conquered by the troops of Ferdinand III of Castile. The emigration of hundredthousands of Moors to Northern Africa led to a decrease of economics in the whole area. Seville recovered in the 16th and 17th century, when it became the hub of Spanish maritime trade. During this period, the port of Seville had a monopoly on overseas trade. Vespucci and Magellan planned and started their voyages here. The Cathedral "Catedral de Santa María de la Sede" was erected between 1401 and 1519 on the remains of the Great Mosque of Seville, built in the 12th century. With about 11,520m² this is the third-largest church in the world as well as the largest Gothic church. The Cathedral in Cologne covers about 7,900m². The Great Mosque of Seville was dedicated in 1172 and completed 1198. It was a rectangular building 113m x 135m inculding a minaret ("La Giralda") and a courtyard. After the conquest the mosque was converted into the city's cathedral. The orientation was changed and it got divided into chapels by new walls. In 1401 it was decided to build a new cathedral and replace the mosque, that had served as a cathedral. In 1551, 5 years after construction ended, the crossing lantern ("cimborrio"), collapsed and was rebuilt. It collapsed again in 1888, and work continued until 1903. The cathedral of today is 115m long and 76 m wide. There are five naves, the vaultig over the central one is 42m high.

Tongeren, founded 15BC under the name of "Aduatuca Tungrorum", is the oldest town in Belgium. The Romans set up a military camp, that was later abandoned, - but the settlement, that had grown around the camp developed into an important trading center near the Roman road linking Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) to Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer). Though strongly fortified the Franks sacked the town in 275. The Roman reign endet when the town got destroyed in 451 probably by the Huns. At that time a seat of a bishop existed here already. This see later moved on to Maastricht (595) and finally to Liege (718). In 881 Tongeren was raided and looted by the Normans. The largely destroyed city was rebuilt in the 10th century. Tongeren prospered but in 1677 Louis XIV’s troops blew up the city walls and burned the town down. It took the town two centuries to recover from this. Where the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwebasiliek stands now, was the bishopric see with Saint Maternus and Saint Servatius, the first bishops of the diocese founded here. In Carolingian times a collegiate convent existed and a pre-Romanesque church was erected, that later got replaced by a Romanesque structure. This church burned down during a war, fought by the prince-bishop of Liège, the Count of Loon, the Duke of Brabant and the French King. Following the complete demolition of the burnt church, the construction of the large-scale gothic collegiate and town church began in 1240. It was completed in its present form in the 16th century. Since some years the basilica´s treasures are displayed in the "Teseum", a museum, located in the building of the former collegiate, that adjoins the church. teseum.be/en/

Cologne is the fourth-largest city in Germany - and one of the oldest. A Germanic tribe, the Ubii, had a settlement here, this was named by the Romans "Oppidum Ubiorum". In 50 AD, the Romans founded "Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium", the city then became the provincial capital of "Germania Inferior". A city with such a history has -of course- many museums. One is the "Museum Schnütgen", devoted to medieval art. In 1906, the collection of Alexander Schnütgen, a theologian and passionate art collector, was donated to the city. Since 1956, the museum has occupied the Romanesque church of St. Cäcilien (1130-1160), that was once part of a monastery founded in 881. An annex was added in the 1950s, but even now only about 10% of all artefacts can be displayed as of course the collection has expanded since Schnütgen´s donation. www.museum-schnuetgen.de/Info In medieval times these kind of bust reliquaries were produced in Cologne by the thousends, after it was believed to have found the relics of Ursula and her companions. Cologne was surrounded by Roman graveyards, so the number of companions grew to 11.000! This started an industry. Reliquaries were produced in manufactures.