Sacred Splendor: Jewish Ritual Art and Christian Treasures from St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

The exhibition’s narrative is anchored in the city of Prague, a religious and political capital at the crossroads of Central European trade routes that emerged as a key medieval center for the production of sacred art. King of Bohemia Charles IV refashioned the city’s St. Vitus Cathedral into a Gothic marvel and endowed it with important relics, commissioning elaborate reliquaries to house them. Prague’s Jewish community, well-established during this period after settling in the city centuries earlier, lived in close proximity to its Christian neighbors, developing their ritual traditions alongside one another.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibition sheds light on the ways in which a shared built environment—including Gothic architecture and design—influenced stylistic developments across faiths, producing visual resonances between sacred objects. Since Jews were barred from joining professional guilds, Christian artisans often worked across Jewish and Christian communities. The same Christian masons built Prague’s Altneuschul Synagogue and the nearby Convent of St. Agnes, from which architectural fragments will be on view. Similarly, a Christian Prayer Book and an illustrated Hebrew Bible from the workshop of the late fifteenth-century Bohemian illuminator Valentine Noh will be shown together for the first time.

Against the backdrop of this shared artistic environment, ties between Christians and Jews in Central Europe often frayed. When plague swept across Europe in the late 1340s, fear and uncertainty overwhelmed already-fragile social relations. Jews were falsely accused of poisoning water wells and causing the Black Death, which led to widespread attacks, expulsions, and the destruction of long-established Jewish communities across Central Europe. Some affluent Jewish families, facing escalating threat, hid their silver, coins, and jewelry underground, including several groups of objects showcased in the exhibition. These hoards stand in stark juxtaposition to the Christian reliquaries preserved by the church with reverence over hundreds of years.

Sacred Splendor concludes in the 16th and 17th centuries when Jewish ritual life flourished, book production blossomed, and vibrant cultural exchange thrived. This period was marked by the construction of three new synagogues in Prague, the establishment of communal organizations—including the first modern burial society—and a robust Hebrew printing culture.