KONZERVATORSKO-RESTAURATORSKI RADOVI. DVA RELIKVIJARA IZ ŽUPNE CRKVE SV. MARTINA U VARAŽDINSKIM TOPLICAMA
CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION WORK. TWO RELIQUARIES FROM THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARTIN IN VARAŽDINSKE TOPLICE

Summary/Abstract: Reliquaries or shrines are containers used for keeping relics and displaying them for veneration; remains of Christian saints and martyrs or objects linked to them. Reliquaries Mater Christi and A Spinis Coronatus from the parish church of St. Martin in Varažinske Toplice originated in the late 18th century and are kept today in the parish rectory, but until as late as the 1950s were situated at the altar of St. Martin. These shrines are part of the region’s protected movable cultural heritage and therefore had to be preserved and restored. The efforts were financed by the Ministry of Culture and carried out at the Croatian Conservation Institute’s Ludbreg Conservation Centre. The conservation was rather a complex one, as the reliquaries are composed of diverse materials, whose distinctiveness needed to be taken into account, and bore marks of previous injuries and interventions, which all called for adjustments in the present-day technology of conventional conservation methods. A complete conservation procedure was undertaken on both the wooden polychrome and gilded containers and the richly decorated interiors. Casings were constructed for the shrines from acid-free cardboard with corresponding fillings and they were returned to the office of the RC parish of St. Martin in Varaždinske Toplice, where they are currently kept.

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