2023 Host Pyx - Set

The stamp features a valuable liturgical vessel from the Museum of Mining and Gothic Art Leogang in Salzburg's Pinzgau region.

In a host pyx, priests store hosts from the tabernacle for administering communion when travelling or for communion to the sick. The depicted host pyx was once carried by the archbishops of Salzburg on their travels.

The fire-gilded copper vessel with lid and cross finial from around 1200 is decorated with the finest enamel, in the so-called champlevé technique, depressions in the surface were filled with vitreous enamel. This earliest form of enamel work in Europe originates from Limoges in southern France; the city is still known today for its enamel art and its porcelain.

Art treasures from Limoges have special significance in the Museum of Mining and Gothic Art Leogang, where, among other things, a valuable Limoges cross from Bartholomäberg in the Montafon region is on loan.