Courtrai Chest on loan - to Courtrai

The Warden and the Chattels Fellow visited Courtrai as guests of the city and of the Government of Flanders to see New College’s ‘Courtrai Chest’, the centrepiece of an exhibition on the Battle of the Golden Spurs of 1302, a critical component of the Flemish historical narrative. This loan by the College is the most important made in recent history. It has already received some 33,000 visitors. Discovered on a College farm by Warden Spooner, the chest is usually housed in the Muniment Tower treasury.

The exhibition is housed in the Church of our Lady, and is accompanied by a 2,000,000 Euro immersive display which vividly evokes the battle, where an army of French knights was defeated. The subsequent interpretation of this battle by different ethnic and political interests is objectively and interestingly described in a contextual display after one sees the chest.

After our chest returns to College, a replica will replace it.