Delight.

THESE BEAUTIFUL AND EXTRAORDINARY RELIGIOUS ARTEFACTS TESTIFY TO THE SURVIVAL OF THE ARMENIAN AND THEIR CHRITIAN FAITH THROUGH THE CENTURIES, DESPITE THE HORRORS OF WAR AND DIASPORA.

Closely linked with biblical legend, Armenia is the site of one of the world's oldest living cultures. Historically it is the location of Mount Ararat, where Noah's Ark supposedly came to rest. Next year marks 1700 years since the proclamation of Christianity in Armenia and the founding of the Armenian Apostolic church. This anniversary generated the impetus for an exhibition on Rescued Armenian Treasures from Cl/ida at the Museum of Art at Moritzburg Castle in Halle, Germany.

Following the Seljuk invasion of Greater Armenia, Armenians emigrated to the south-west where they founded the Cilician Armenian kingdom. Despite the devastation of this kingdom in 1375 by the Mameluks. Cilician-Armenian culture flourished over the centuries in the Ottoman-Turkish empire up until the First World War. In 1915, the Armenians of Cilicia rescued the treasures of the old see of Catholicosate in Sis and brought them first to Aleppo and eventually to Lebanon. After 70 years, the treasures have now found a new and appropriate home at the Kilikia Museum in Antelias near Beirut. The Halle exhibition showed all of the Kilikia Museum's collection, including precious reliquaries, episcopal vestments, candlesticks. mitres, staffs and rings, a large assortment of Armenian miniatures, metal book bindings and many other artefacts. It emphasized not only the treasures' artistic worth, but also their symbolic value, representing the survival and rebirth of the Armenian people following war and diaspora. Shown here are a nineteenth-century bishop's robe, an eighteenth-century book cover and a reliquary of the Arm of St Nicholas dating from 1325 and made of gold-plated silver inset with emeralds and rubies. Nicholas was Bishop of Myra (now called Dembre in Turkey) and is traditionally represented as an elderly bearded man in episcopal vestments. Among the many miracles attributed to him are several in aid of seafarers and children. He is one of the most popular saints both in East and West, and is perhaps better known under his nickname, Santa Claus, from the Dutch Sint Niklaas.