Pilgrimage to the Holy Coat in 1844

In the summer of 1844, more than 500,000 pilgrims visited the provincial city of Trier, Germany, to venerate one of Christianity's most prestigious relics, the seamless robe that Jesus was said to have worn at the time of his crucifixion. This once-in-a-generation event represented a milestone for the breakthrough of Ultramontane Catholicism in the Rhineland and caused a great media controversy over pilgrims' supposed superstition and clericalism. The engraving shows how the masses of pilgrims were guided through the cathedral and passed in front of the relic in processional order.

Innere Ansicht des Doms zu Trier während der Ausstellung des heil. Rockes im Jahre 1844, engraving, ca. 1845, artist: J. J. Tanner; source: Marx, Jacob: Die Ausstellung des h. Rockes in der Domkirche zu Trier im Herbste des Jahres 1844, Trier 1845, front page, digital copy: Staatsbibliothek München, https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/view/bsb10026106?page=6%2C7, non-commercial use only, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/.