Napoleon Tiara

The Napoleon Tiara was a papal tiara given to Pope Pius VII in June 1805 on the occasion of the coronation of Napoleon I and Joséphine de Beauharnais. While lavishly decorated with jewels, it was deliberately too small and heavy to be worn and meant as an insult to the pope.

The tiara, which was of traditional papal tiara design, was designed and manufactured by Henri Auguste and Marie-Étienne Nitot of the House of Chaumet in Paris. On a central structure of white velvet there are three crowns of gold, each consisting of a large hoop surmounted with flower-work of wrought leaves, enriched with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires and surrounded with brilliants on a setting of matched and chosen pearls. In total, the tiara included 3,345 precious stones and 2,990 pearls. It cost 179,800 francs.

During the insurrection of 1831, the tiara was buried in Vatican Gardens and suffered great damage as a result. It was restored in 1834–34. The Vatican adjusted the size of the tiara so that it could be worn. It was used as the coronation tiara for a number of popes, most notably Pope Pius IX on 21 June 1846. The Napoleon Tiara was last worn during the First Vatican Council in 1870. With the exception of the emerald and 8 rubies in the monde, all the jewels were removed and replaced by replicas made of coloured glass on the orders of Pope Benedict XV. The jewels were then sold to raise money for the victims of the First World War.

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