Crown Jewels of Europe

Whenever we visit a foreign country (which has become pleasantly frequent) we make it a point of visiting the museum or castle where they keep the crown jewels. We also visit plenty of present day jewelers but that is for a different purpose. The crown jewels are the cache of booty that the particular country has accumulated over the centuries, and different countries have greater or lesser hordes depending upon how long they were on top. Also, some of the countries you would figure would have great caches of stuff don't and other lesser countries do.

In my mind the top three jewelry collections are England, Russia and Turkey. The British Crown Jewels located in the Tower Of London are the best in terms of individual magnificence and total opulence. The Star of India and the Koh-i-Noor are probably the top 2 jewels in the world and the Brits have both. There are tons of other jewels and gold stuff of every description. Britannia ruled the world for a long time and they have the jewels to prove it.

The Russians come in second. For what was a backward country for a long time and then a communist one they did pretty well in the wealth category. In St. Petersburg there is a special room called the Gold Room which is chock full of gold jewelry, plates, cups and all sorts of things made of gold. Some of the workmanship is truly amazing. The room literally sparkles with gold. You need a special pass to get in but it is worth every ruble. At one time, the Russian Empire stretched out over a vast area of the world and the czars were able to accumulate a huge stockpile of gold from their subject nations. They also controlled different geographies than the English so those guys did not have to steal from each other.

Next come the Turks. The Treasury Building in Istanbul in the Sultan's Palace contains the finest combination of gems (especially rubies and emeralds) and European jewelry of any of the other Crown collections we have seen. The design of the jewelry is very different from the Western Crown Jewels. They are incredibly opulent and emphasize gigantic stones rather than workmanship. In the same palace there is a guy reading constantly from the Koran; someone has been doing that constantly for 500 years. The Turks have all this stuff because they conquered a huge swath of the Middle East and took everything they could get their hands on and brought it to the Sultan.

Some of the more disappointing collections were the Chinese, the Scots and the Hungarians. Our tour guide in Budapest made a big fuss over seeing the Crown Jewels as did the guidebooks and the desk clerk at our hotel. When we finally saw the famous crown of St. Stephen it had basically one jewel in it. There was one ring also.

The most disappointing by far were the Chinese Crown Jewels. The emperors of China ruled over the largest, wealthiest and most advanced society in the world for hundreds of years and they have virtually nothing to show for it by way of jewelry. We went to the Forbidden City (which was shabby and rundown compared to other royal palaces we had been to) and saw a very paltry collection. I guess years of Western looting followed by Communist rule depleted their collection.

The Scottish collection was both disappointing and moving at the same time. There were only a few jewels, primarily used for coronations, yet the most intriguing item was the historic Stone of Scone. This small (about the size of 3 cinder blocks) sandstone block with an iron ring at either end was used for the coronation of Scots kings. Apparently, the king would sit on the stone and receive the crown. What I found so fascinating was that here in a glass case with precious jewels was an item of no intrinsic value whatever, and yet I had the feeling of being in the presence of something mystical and powerful.

Some other collections deserving an honorable mention are the Thai Royal Palace and the Treasury attached to the big church in Seville, Spain (remember the Spanish looted the New World&but then the English stole it back from the Spanish).

So, if you ever get a chance, be sure to stop by and see the beautiful collections gathered over centuries by each of these nations.