In addition to these ephemeral items, the generosity of these European royal houses also extended to artistic works of silverware, textiles and furniture, intended for use during worship or to decorate religious spaces.

This exhibition focuses on these gifts, which include noteworthy works of European art. The church lamp sent to Jerusalem by the king of Portugal, João V, and the baldachin that housed a monstrance or crucifix, given by Carlo VII, king of Naples, are eloquent examples of gifts used as political strategies at the time.

The exhibition also proposes a journey through the centuries-old history and spiritual symbolism of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre,  while examining the role played by the Custody of the Holy Land—the Franciscan Catholic institution responsible for guarding the Christian places in the Holy Land—in the receiving, use and preservation of these objects of Catholic worship.

Calouste Gulbenkian’s link to the Holy Land is also evoked, revealing his family’s long-standing ties to this place and brings to light an Armenian illuminated manuscript from the 15th century, which the collector gave to the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Presented here for the first time, this manuscript was gifted in the 1940s, when Gulbenkian was already living in Portugal.