Agate Casket of Oviedo

This masterpiece of 10th century Asturian gold work is kept in the Cámara Santa (Holy Chamber) treasury.

It is a rectangular box made of wood of European Pear, with a lid in the shape of a truncated pyramid.

The wooden box is covered with sheets of gold forming unequal arches in which 99 large flat sections of veined agate are mounted.

[1] It is decorated with small animals in enamel in a kind of champlevé technique that is only found in one other work, the South German rear cover of the Lindau Gospels, of the late 8th century, now in the Morgan Library, New York.

May this peaceful undertaking in honour of God endure, which Freula and Nunilo surnamed Jimena gave, obedient to Christ.