Holy Nail Gospels and the Cross of Theophanu), Theophanu probably put the enamel workshop which had made the Senkschmelz Cross and the Marsus shrine under Mathilde, back into operation for the manufacture of the Cross of Mathilde. History From its creation, the cross has been located in Essen, except for evacuations during wars and other crises. On account of the depiction of Mathilde and the similarities with two other crosses of the Cathedral Treasury, which were also donations to Essen, it is assumed that it belonged to the Abbey continuously from its donation until the secularisation of Essen Abbey in 1802. However, the sources for the Essen Cathedral Treasury do not explicitly mention the cross. The Inventarium reliquiarum Essendiensium of 12 July 1627, the earliest inventory of the Abbey's treasurym does not allow a certain identification, since it only recorded "Two crucifixes decorated with a lot of gemstones and gold, but gilded copper on the reverse." This description applies to all four of the processional crosses in the Essen Cathedral Treasury. The Liber Ordinarius, which controlled the liturgical use of the Abbey's treasure, speaks of processional crosses only in general terms. During the Thirty Years War, the Abbess fled with the treasure to Cologne and in 1794, as the French advanced on Essen, the Abbey Treasury was taken to Steele (modern Essen-Steele), where it was kept in an orphanage donated by the Abbess Francisca Christina of Sulzbach. At secularisation the Catholic church of St Johann Baptist took over the Abbey as well as its property, as the parish church. It made the cross, along with the rest of the Cathedral treasury accessible to the public for the first time. During the Ruhr Uprising of 1920 the whole treasury was taken in great secrecy to Hildesheim, whence it was returned in 1925 in equally secretive circumstances. In the Second World War the Cathedral Treasury was first taken to Warstein, then to Albrechtsburg in Meissen and thence to a bunker in Siegen. After the end of the war it was found there by American troops and the cross along with the rest of the treasury was taken to the State Museum in Marburg and later to a collection for displaced artworks in Schloss Dyck in Rheydt. From April to October 1949 the Essen Cathedral Treasury was displayed in Brussels and Amsterdam, before it was brought back to Essen. With the creation of