The Braganza Brooch
- Gallery: Room 22
- Culture: Hellenistic; La Tène
- Made in: Spain (?); Portugal (?)
- Date: 250BC-200BC
- Object type: fibula
- Materials: gold; glass
- Museum number: 2001,0501.1
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This is "The Braganza Brooch," a striking gold fibula made during the Hellenistic period, around 250 to 200 BCE. Before you is a long-footed brooch featuring a finely detailed figure of a naked warrior wearing a Celtic helmet, with a scabbard hanging from his waist and a sword in his grasp. A hunting dog leaps toward him, caught mid-pounce. Originally, both figures had eyes made of glass "enamel," lost over time.
The curved bow is decorated with eight curls, and the side panels show complex spirals and loops, once also set with blue glass. Both ends of the brooch are marked by a stylized dog’s head, suggesting a symbolic as well as decorative function.
Made in what is now Spain or Portugal, the piece showcases Greek artistic influences alongside La Tène styles, often linked to early Celtic cultures. Likely from a burial or hoard, it later passed through the collection of the Portuguese royal family before being sold and displayed in major art exhibitions.
See it in person
The Braganza Brooch is on display in Room 22 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
New, in beta. British Museum support has just launched and is still improving: over 1,000 objects so far, with more added all the time.
