A portrait of King Géza from the royal crown

When Pope Gregory VII tried to exert papal influence over Hungary by offering the throne (and a crown) to Prince Géza, Géza refused and instead used  for his coronation a crown received as a gift from the Byzantine emperor. The lower part of the crown, made between 1074 and 1077, consists of gold plates with enameled half-size portraits of saints, Byzantine rulers, and, characteristically, this portrait of Géza, described as a "king of Turkey" (kralis Turkias). Throughout Hungarian history, only a ruler crowned with this crown was recognized as a legitimate king. At the end of the World War II, the crown had been taken to the United States, where it was kept for over 30 years. It returned to Hungary in 1977.