Holy Crown of Hungary
The Holy Crown of Hungary, also known as the Crown of Saint Stephen, named in honour of Saint Stephen I of Hungary, was the coronation crown used by the Kingdom of Hungary for most of its existence; kings were crowned with it since the twelfth century. The Crown symbolized the King's authority over the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and it was a key mark of legitimacy. Through the history of Hungary, more than fifty kings were crowned with it, with the last being Charles IV in 1916. The only kings not crowned were Wladyslaw I, John Sigismund Zápolya, and Joseph II.
The earliest contemporary written source concerning the elevation of Stephen to kingship is the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg, which records the event within the political and imperial context of the reign of Emperor Otto III. According to Thietmar, Stephen’s elevation took place at imperial initiative, and the coronation was carried out together with an ecclesiastical blessing:
“Imperatoris autem praedicti gratia et hortatu … coronam et benedictionem accepit.”
The wording of the source makes it clear that the elevation to kingship was not merely a secular act, but an event accompanied by ecclesiastical blessing, which necessarily presupposes the participation of a church authority. This contemporary account of imperial initiative is complemented by the early 12th-century Hartvik Legend, which provides liturgical details of the papal mediation.
The enamels on the crown are mainly or entirely Byzantine work, presumed to have been made in Constantinople in the 1070s. The crown was presented by the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas to the King Géza I of Hungary; both are depicted and named in the Greek language on enamel plaques in the lower crown. However, in popular tradition the Holy Crown was thought to be older and of Papal provenance, dating to the time of the first King Stephen I of Hungary crowned 1000/1001. It is one of two known Byzantine crowns to survive, the other being the slightly earlier Monomachus Crown in the Hungarian National Museum, which may have had another function. The Holy Crown has probably been remodelled using elements of different origins. The date assigned to the present configuration of the Holy Crown is most commonly put around the late 12th century. The Hungarian coronation regalia consists of the Holy Crown, the sceptre, the orb, and the mantle. The orb has the coat of arms of Charles I.
The name "Holy Crown" was first used in 1256. By the 14th century it became the unique symbol of royal power. As written by Crown Guard Péter Révay, when Hungary needed a new monarch it did not seek a crown to inaugurate a king, but a king worthy of the Crown. He also said "the Holy Crown is for the Hungarians what the Lost Ark is for the Jewish people".
Since 2000, the Holy Crown has been on display in the central Domed Hall of the Hungarian Parliament Building.
Specifications of the Crown
- The shape is elliptic and is larger than a normal human head. During coronations, the king had to wear a leather 'kapa' liner inside the crown.
- The weight is 2056 g.
- The gold-silver alloys in the upper and the lower parts differ in alloy ratio.
- The lower part is asymmetric.
Holiness doctrine
Péter Révay, a Crown Guard, expounded this doctrine in his works Commentarius De Sacra Regni Hungariae Corona and De monarchia et Sacra Corona Regni Hungariae.
Under this doctrine, the crown itself is a legal person identical to the state of Hungary. It is superior to the ruling monarch, who rules "in the name of the crown".
Origin
According to the most accepted theory, in the publications of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Hungarian Catholic Episcopal Conference, the Holy Crown consists of three parts: the lower abroncs, the corona graeca; the upper keresztpántok, the corona latina; and the uppermost cross, tilted at an angle. It is thought that it was created under Byzantine influence during the reign of the Hungarian King Béla III, who was brought up in the Byzantine court and was briefly heir to the Byzantine throne, or some other events around 1200. This was many decades after the crowning of Stephen I marked the beginning of Hungarian statehood, variously given as Christmas 1000 or 1 January 1001.Another version of the origin of the crown was written by bishop Hartvik around 1100–1110 at the request of King Könyves Kálmán, in which the "Pope" sent King Stephen I "his blessings and a crown". According to "Hartvik’s legend", St. Stephen sent Archbishop Astrik of Esztergom to Rome to acquire a crown from the "Pope", who is not named. Despite Astrik's haste, the envoy of Mieszko I of Poland arrived at Rome first. In a dream, the Pope saw an angel who told him: "There will be another envoy from an unknown folk, who will ask for a crown also. Give them the crown, as they deserve it." The next day Astrik arrived, and the Pope gave the crown to him.
Hartvik’s legend appeared in liturgical books and breviaries in Hungary around 1200, naming the then-existing Pope Sylvester II. Subsequently, the story of the crown sent by Sylvester II spread throughout the Christian world, and was published in 1613 by the crown guard Péter Révay.
However, the legend is not supported by historical evidence. Mieszko I did not live at the same time as St. Stephen I or Pope Sylvester II. Also, the "Greater Legend" of St Stephen, written around 1083, makes no mention of the Crown's Roman provenance: "in the fifth year after the death of his father...they brought a Papal letter of blessing...and the Lord’s favoured one, Stephen, was chosen to be king, and was anointed with oil and auspiciously crowned with the diadem of royal honour". Moreover, Vatican archives have found no record of the granting of the crown. Another document giving doubtful evidence is by Thietmar von Merseburg : he wrote that Holy Roman Emperor Otto III consented to Stephen's coronation, and that the Pope sent his blessings, but there is no mention of a crown.
The question to what extent the upper part of the Holy Crown belonged to the crown of King Stephen I remained open until 1978, when the coronation insignia was returned to Hungary and a thorough examination was carried out.
The differing styles and techniques used in making the enamel pictures and the fact that the inscriptions on the diadem are in Greek and on the bands in Latin suggest that the two parts were probably made in two different periods. However, there are no known representations in which the crown is separated: the Holy Crown is always shown as one.
Type
The Crown is a coronation crown, which should be worn only on the occasion of a coronation, and for the rest of the time two crown guards guard it. Apart from this, there are only two other people who can touch it, the nádorispán, who puts it onto a pillow during the coronation, and the Archbishop of Esztergom, who places it on the head of the king.Structure of the crown and its icons
The Holy Crown was made of gold and decorated with nineteen enamel pantokrator pictures as well as semi-precious stones, genuine pearls, and almandine. It has three parts: abroncs , keresztpántok , and the cross on the top tilted at an angle.Four hanging pendants dangle from chains on each side of the diadem and one in the back. The crown has no monde.
Peer-reviewed studies published in 2024–2025, applying archaeoengineering investigative methods, concluded that the Holy Crown was produced as a uniformly planned and assembled structure, whose primary and structurally determining element is the cross-strap system. Through the analysis of manufacturing sequence, applied techniques, geometric reproducibility, and failure mode and effects analysis, an independently verifiable technical method of interpretation was established for the crown.
One of the technical conclusions is that the hoop of the crown cannot be interpreted as a crown originating from Emperor Michael VII Doukas and later transferred to King Géza I of Hungary, as the structural and geometric relationships do not support this interpretation on technical grounds.
Corona graeca
The abroncs corona graeca is 5.2 cm wide with a diameter of 20.5 cm.The two aquamarine stones with cut surfaces on the back of the diadem were added as replacements by King Matthias II. The enamel picture on the front depicts Christ Pantokrator. On the rim to the right and left of Jesus are pictures of the archangels Michael and Gabriel, followed by half-length images of the Saints George and Demetrius, and Cosmas and Damian.
In the arched frame on the back of the diadem Emperor Michael VII Doukas is depicted. Below it to the left is the half-length picture of "Kon. Porphyrogennetos", this probably being either Emperor Michael's brother and co-emperor Konstantios Doukas or of his son and heir Constantine Doukas, both having been born in the purple. To the right there is a picture of the Hungarian King Géza I, with the Greek inscription: ΓΕΩΒΙΤΖΑϹ ΠΙΣΤΟϹ ΚΡΑΛΗϹ ΤΟΥΡΚΙΑϹ.
The contemporary Byzantine name for the Hungarians was "Turks", while the Hungarian branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, under Constantinople's jurisdiction, was named the "Metropolitanate of Tourkia", and the head of this church was the "Metropolitan of Tourkia". As was customary in the hierarchy of the Byzantine state, clear differentiation is made between style of the emperors and that of the Hungarian king by using a hellenized form of the common South Slavic word for "king" for Géza. The saints and the Greek rulers have halos while Géza does not. The inscriptions of the emperors’ names are in red, while the Hungarian king's is in dark blue or black.
The enamel plaques on the circular band, the panel depicting Christ Pantokrator, and the picture of Emperor Michael were all affixed to the crown using different techniques. The picture of the emperor could not be attached to the rim in the same way as the Pantokrator picture on the front. The frame was folded upwards and the picture of the emperor was nailed to the edge. We can thus conclude that the picture of Michael VII was not originally designed for this crown, but was probably used first somewhere else.
The corona graeca with its pointed and arched plaques is identical to the form of the crowns of the Byzantine empresses – in other words it was a woman's crown. It was given by Emperor Michael Dukas VII to King Géza's wife, known only as Synadene, around 1075. The gift was not a new crown, but rather an old crown designed for a woman that had to be selected from the Emperor's treasury and remodelled. The enamel pictures that become outdated were removed, since either represented earlier historical figures or were not appropriate for the Hungarian queen according to court protocol. It was in this form that the crown was sent to Hungary.
There is another view that the Géza depicted on the corona graeca is not King Géza I but St Stephen's father. This view is confirmed by the fact that Grand Prince Géza is depicted on the corona gracea without a crown, although carrying a royal sceptre.