Holy Grail: Did you mean...?

A 1532 portrait by Jakob Seisenegger of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1519-56) with his dog. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Portrait of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500-1558), line engraving on paper by Barthel Berham. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.

Portrait of Emperor Leopold I as a young man, wearing the Order of the Golden Fleece, oil on canvas by Benjamin Block, 1631-1689. Private collection. This portrait of the young monarch is rare as it depicts...

The Carolingian Dynasty (751-887) was a family of Frankish nobles who ruled Francia and its successor kingdoms in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. The dynasty expanded from Francia as far as modern Italy...

Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer of Romantic music most famous for his epic operas like The Ring, Tannhäuser, and Tristan and Isolde. Wagner was concerned throughout his career with the theme of redemption through...

Simon Reeve begins in Istanbul, Turkey, a busy medieval staging post for pilgrims to the Holy Land. Before falling to the Ottoman Empire, it was the centre of Roman Christianity under Emperor...

Part of Votive Panel of Jan Očko of Vlašim depicting Charles IV. Tempera on limewood, before 1371. National Museum, Prague.

The Ark of the Covenant refers to the box-like container that held the tablets of the Law received by Moses on Mount Sinai. Tradition claimed that it contained two stone tablets, carved by God, listing the first ten commandments...

The Altarpiece of the Holy Blood in the church of Saint Jacob, Rothenburg, Germany. Made of glazed limewood by Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531), it was completed by 1505. It shows the Last Supper in the...

The site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is identified as the place both of the crucifixion and the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth. Despite the mutilations of the centuries, the Holy...