Gold and loss of faith in central banking
I think @DornerA gave a good answer for reasoning behind the mechanism.

For a historical example, look no further than the fiscal crisis and the rapid increase in gold price from 2008-2011. 



Of course a lot happened during those years with house prices collapsing in the U.S. Faith in central banking is closely associated with the value of money and the belief of whether a central bank can keep the economy steady or not and in a situation where this belief is low, people gravitate towards widely accepted stores of wealth.