Limestone Keystone from a Vaulted Ceiling

Limestone Keystone from a Vaulted Ceiling

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 1100s and 1200s, fortified settlements were built in the Holy Land by knights from western Europe trying to establish a Christian kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital. Founded by French Crusaders in the 1100s, Castle Montfort was purchased in the 1220s by the Teutonic Knights, German Crusaders who rebuilt it and renamed it Starkenberg. The stonemason who carved this keystone, probably during the Teutonic Knights’ restoration of the site, left his mark, a cross, inscribed on its left end. In 1272 after a heavy siege, the castle fell to Baybars, the Mamluk sultan of Egypt. The surviving knights retired to Acre (now Akko, Israel), the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land. In 1926 the Museum took part in the excavation of the ruined castle.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone Keystone from a Vaulted CeilingLimestone Keystone from a Vaulted CeilingLimestone Keystone from a Vaulted CeilingLimestone Keystone from a Vaulted CeilingLimestone Keystone from a Vaulted Ceiling

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.