The deserved safekeeping and return of the Holy Crown established a rarely mentioned but very strong tie between Hungary and the United States of America – stated Hungarian Minister of Defence Csaba Hende in Budapest on January 5, at a ceremony held to mark the 35th anniversary of the return home of the crown.

Speaking in the Church of our Lady in the Inner City of Budapest, Minister Hende said that we must preserve this tie since “we have allied to protect freedom, to protect our common freedom.” We must remember what a great treasure we have in Hungarian freedom and the Holy Crown incorporating it. “Let us remember those heroes and friends of ours who have preserved and kept them for us”, the Minister added.

In his speech delivered at the event, Timothy Alan Betts, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy pointed out that the return of the Holy Crown symbolizes the trust between the two nations. He reminded his audience that diplomatic relations between the two countries go back more than 90 years. He added that the safekeeping of the Holy Crown had been a very great honor to America. The Holy Crown and the related coronation regalia returned to Hungary 35 years ago, on January 6, 1978. Acting “on behalf of the American people”, in the Parliament building US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance presented to the Hungarian people their national relics that had gone to American hands in the spring of 1945 in Austria.

At the end of World War II the coronation relics were taken to Veszprém to save them from the advancing Soviet forces. In early December 1944, the crown guards rescued the jewels to Kőszeg, then to Velem, and in March 1945 to Mariazell, Austria and then to Mattsee where they dug them in a barrel on the night of April 26. When the crown guards were taken prisoners of war by the Americans, they revealed the hiding place, so the treasures went intact to the hands of the US military. The objects – which are so precious to the Hungarian nation – were first transported from Augsburg to the vault of a bank in Frankfurt, and then to the United States, where they were  finally held in Fort Knox.

The decision to return the crown and the coronation regalia was taken by US President Jimmy Carter. To him, the return of the relics was not a political issue but rather a matter of conscience and morality, because these symbols of the past and statehood of a nation were away from their rightful owner – the Hungarian people – without any international agreements. At the end of October 1977 secret negotiations started on the implementation of the return, but their leaking to the press sparked a heated debate on the presidential decision, as several Members of Congress and part of the Hungarian exiles opposed it.

After restoration, the crown and the coronation regalia were taken to the Hungarian National Museum where they were on display for 20 years. In accordance with the Parliament’s decision, on January 1, 2000 the Holy Crown, the orb, the scepter and the sword were ceremonially transported to Parliament building (the mantle remained in the museum). Since then, the coronation jewels have been on display there, and the Honvéd Crown Guard has been guarding the Holy Crown since 2011.

(MTI/MoD Press Office)