State Secretary Tamás Vargha said the Holy Crown of Hungary represents the values that make Hungarians great.
The state secretary told a ceremony marking the 45th anniversary of the return of the Holy Crown by the United States to Hungary, that the return of the Holy Crown was the “harbinger of change” during the communist era. He added that Hungary was grateful “to our American friends for having protected the Holy Crown in a dignified manner and returned it to Hungary unharmed”. The state secretary noted that until 1527, no one in Hungary could be considered a lawful king unless they were crowned with the Holy Crown. Contenders to the throne therefore did whatever they had to in order to get the crown, he added. The Holy Crown embodies the idea of the Hungarian state, it is a symbol of Hungarian statehood and is the most valuable and an irreplaceable national asset, Vargha said. He noted that in the recent period Hungary’s government had “settled two debts to the Holy Crown”, namely that it had the crown moved from the Hungarian National Museum to the Parliament and established the Crown Guard.