The Holy Lance of Vienna

Saint John records that when Jesus had died on the Cross, “one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water” (John 19:34). Tradition names the soldier Longinus. Several lances have been venerated as the one that pierced Christ, and the most famous is kept in Vienna.

The Vienna lance is a winged spearhead of the Carolingian period, made in the eighth century. A long iron pin, venerated as one of the nails of the Crucifixion, is set into its blade and bound with wire. Later a silver sleeve was added, and in the fourteenth century the Emperor Charles IV added a gold one inscribed Lancea et clavus Domini, “Lance and nail of the Lord.”

For a thousand years it was one of the most sacred pieces of the imperial regalia of the Holy Roman Empire. Emperors carried it into battle and at their coronations, and it was believed to bring victory. It came to Vienna with the rest of the imperial treasure in 1800.

Another relic of the Holy Lance, sent to Pope Innocent VIII by the Ottoman Sultan in 1492, is kept in one of the great piers of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, beneath Bernini’s statue of Saint Longinus.

Where

Imperial Treasury (Kaiserliche Schatzkammer), Hofburg, Vienna, Austria

When to see it

On display in the Imperial Treasury of the Hofburg.

Map

Find it on OpenStreetMap