Budapest arms & colours. Throughout the centuries (Budapest, 1998)

Explanations "Insignias now known as arms of particular cities were initially used only on their seals."

1 The quote implies that the three cities of Pest, Buda and Óbuda, self-governing until 1873, had been using their own arms and seals for centuries. It was as early as the 13th century, after the Tartar invasion, that Buda and Pest received a letters patent issued by King Béla IV. Presumably they had already possessed their own seals, which later found their way to their coats of arms. A patent of nobility issued by King John /Szapolyai/ I. for the citizens of Buda in 1553 contains reference to the fact that the city had had a coat of arms earlier, — and if Buda had one, Pest and the one-time city of the queens, Óbuda must have had their own, too. According to King John's patent, the arms of Buda is a pentagonal, violetcoloured escutcheon, with a three-towered, one-gated castle in the lower field and a lion supporting three human heads with three legs and a gules banner with the fourth in the upper field. The lion was presented to the citizens of Buda for the succesful defence of their castle against the troops of Ferdinand /Hapsburg/ I. The banner, of gules colour, was presented by the Monarch for their loyalty to him.

2 The city could not use its coat of arms for too long: it was taken by the troops of Emperor Suleiman I. The Turks also invaded — together with as much as the third of the country — the neighbouring town of Óbuda and the city of Pest, lying on the other side of the Danube, whose coat of arms is also known from a 15th century seal: a one-towered, one-gated castle. The tower of the castle received a turban in the Turkish times /see Plate X/, as an indication of the foreign rule.