The Crown of Augustus II was intended for his coronation as a King of Poland. The crown was made in 1697 by Freiburg

Freiburg

Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...

's goldsmith Johann Friedrich Klemm. It was not used, however. The Augustus II's crown is kept in Dresden Armory

Dresden Armory

The Dresden Armory , also known as the Dresden Historical Museum , is one of the world's largest collections of ceremonial weapons, armors and historical textiles. It is part of the Dresden State Art Collections.The Dresden Armory is currently on display in the gallery wing of the Zwinger Palace in...

 (Rüstkammer) in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany.

History

Due to a double election of François Louis, Prince of Conti

François Louis, Prince of Conti

François Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti was Prince de Conti, succeeding his brother Louis Armand I, Prince of Conti in 1685. Until this date he used the title of Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon. He was son of Armand de Bourbon and Anne Marie Martinozzi, niece of Cardinal Jules Mazarin...

 and the Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony

Electorate of Saxony

The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...

 (elected King of Poland as Augustus II

Augustus II the Strong

Frederick Augustus I or Augustus II the Strong was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania ....

) in 1697, the two claimants to the Polish throne had serious troubles with obtaining approval of the nobility

Szlachta

The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...

 for their coronation. The most difficult situation was of Elector of Saxony, who had no support of the primate Michał Stefan Radziejowski and most of the senators holding the custody of the Wawel Castle

Wawel Castle

The Gothic Wawel Castle in Kraków in Poland was built at the behest of Casimir III the Great and consists of a number of structures situated around the central courtyard. In the 14th century it was rebuilt by Jogaila and Jadwiga of Poland. Their reign saw the addition of the tower called the Hen's...

 Crown Treasury. Therefore, expecting obstacles in obtaining the royal insignia

Polish Crown Jewels

The only surviving original piece of the Polish Crown Jewels from the time of the Piast dynasty is the ceremonial sword - Szczerbiec. It is currently on display along with other preserved royal items in the Wawel Royal Castle Museum, Kraków....

, he ordered to prepare replacements before his arrival to Kraków

Kraków

Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...

. On the eve of the ceremony

Royal coronations in Poland

Royal coronations in Poland officially began in 1025 and continued until 1764, when the final King of an independent Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, was crowned at St. John's Cathedral in Warsaw. Most Polish coronations took place at the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, but crownings also occurred...

, some of the gathered decided to find a way to obtain the original regalia. Two monks Aleksander Wyhowski, prior of Czerwińsk and Mikołaj Wyżycki, prior of the Holy Cross made a hole in the castle's wall and got to the vault from which they stole the crown, scepter, sword and orb

Globus cruciger

The globus cruciger is an orb topped with a cross , a Christian symbol of authority used throughout the Middle Ages and even today on coins, iconography and royal regalia...

. The Dresden regalia become unnecessary, Augustus II the Strong, however, treated them as a private insignia.

Crown of Augustus II the Strong is made of gilded silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 and decorated with colorful enamel

Vitreous enamel

Vitreous enamel, also porcelain enamel in U.S. English, is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C...

and semi-precious stones.

Further reading

• Lileyko, Jerzy (1987) Regalia Polskie (Polish Regalia) Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, Warsaw, Poland, ISBN 83-03-02021-8
• Miniewicz, Janusz (2006) Tajemnica polskich koron: Czy jest szansa ich odnalezienia? (Mystery of the Polish Crown: Is there any chance of finding it?) Nowy Sącz, Poland, ISBN 83-924034-2-8
• Rożek, Michał (1987) Polskie koronacje i korony (Polish coronations and crowns) Kraków, Poland, ISBN 83-03-01914-7

External links

Königskrone Augusts des Starken