Iron Box for Holy Oil, from the Church of Sao Juliao, Setubal: early 16th century AD

Rectangular shaped piece, with a faceted cover decorated with a platband in manueline style, and polychromatic and gold traces. The front face shows King George's coat of arms, Master of Santiago Order, who would have given this to St Julian's church. Its shape looks like some gothic boxes, in silver gilt. It is here one of the very few surviving pieces of religious artefacts, in iron and tin, produced during that time, and meanwhile mostly gone. Its function was to keep the small bottles with the Holy Oil.