April 2000 - Nr. 4
Schweinfurt pays Tribute to Emperor Charles V
TWIG - An extensive collection of paintings, books, manuscripts and other archival materials from the time of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558) will be on display this spring at the Otto Schaefer Library in Schweinfurt (Bavaria). The exhibition, which marks the Habsburg ruler’s 500th birthday, offers a glimpse of European life at the threshold of the modern age.
Documents highlight the emperor’s central role in the religious affairs of his day - his advocacy of reform within the Catholic Church as well as his opposition to Martin Luther and the Evangelical movement Luther inspired. Portraits of members of the house of Hapsburg show the social and political world in which Charles moved. The last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the pope and a faithful member of the Order of the Golden Fleece, Charles sought to reign over a universal empire. One section of the Schweinfurt exhibit explores his holdings as far away as South America.
As a free imperial city, Schweinfurt lay directly under Charles’s rule in the sixteenth century, and the city squarely opposed him during the Reformation.
( arts, culture, heritage, history )
