Hungary of the Crown and coronation regalia from King Stephen I, who introduced Christianity to the country, over 1000 years ago.
A thanksgiving mass was due to be be held in Matthias Church in Budapest on Monday, January 6, to mark the day that United States Secretary of State Cyrus Vance brought the so called "Holy Crown" to Budapest from America in 1978.
It arrived in the US after World War Two, when Hungary for the most part was a close ally of Nazi Germany. In May 1945 the keepers of the crown buried the regalia in a marshland at Mattsee, near Salzburg, before falling into US. captivity, historians say.
CARTER AGREES
After lengthy interrogations, they disclosed the exact location of the treasures, which were then taken to the United States.
Talks on returning the regalia, the symbols of Hungarian statehood, began in 1977 with the administration of then President Jimmy Carter, who recently won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.
Carter has told reporters he wanted to return the crown to Hungary as a way "to improve ties" between Hungary and America, which had suffered during the Cold War.
NATIONAL MUSEUM
The Holy Crown was kept and exhibited by the Hungarian National Museum until 2000. Since then, it has been on display in the Dome Hall of the Parliament Building in Budapest, amid initial political controversy.
Monday’s mass to mark the crowns return was to be celebrated by outgoing "Cardinal Laszlo Paskai and attended by Hungarian President Ferenc Madl," the Hungarian News Agency MTI reported.
More than six out of 10 Hungarians are calling themselves Catholic, according to official figures. Over 20 percent of Hungary’s population of 10 million is Protestant. The Orthodox faith and Judaism count for one percent each.
