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

Óbuda used to be the residence of Hungarian Queens and of the Church of Óbuda, as was also expressed by its seal, originating from the second half of the 14th century: a castle wall with an open gate, the tower of a church rising in the background. On the right side of the tower there is a lily in the national coat of 3 arms. The country was unable to regain its independence after the 150 years of Turkish rule /1541-1585/: the capital city of Buda, one-time royal residence, together with the rest of the country, was regained by the armies of Leopold /Hapsburg/ I. for the Christian World — and for Leopold I. Thus it was the Hapsburg Emperor who re-offered Buda and Pest its Hapsburg Emperor Patents in 1703- With the Letter Patent, they were also given their coats of arms and seals. The arms of Buda, however, got changed, for evident reasons: in place of the lion a smaller escutcheon was added to the the big one, with the national coat of arms, indicating the capital status of the city. Furthermore, two supporting figures were added, those of Mars and Minerva. On the arms of Pest, two griffins served the same purpose. From the medieval coat of arms of Óbuda only the lily was kept: it was no longer the City of the Queens but a market town owned by the Treasury. /See Plates I. II./ The colours of the city banners were not stated in any of the Royal Patents. Actually, there was no need for this, since the colours of the banners were customarily adopted from the coats of arms.

4 Thus, the colours of Buda became gules- white-green, while those of Pest became blue-yellow-gules. It was in 1873 that the Committe of Thirty-four^, engaged in the unification of Buda, Pest and Óbuda, expressed a view that "in as much as possible, the arms and colours of the city hitherto used should be preserved in reverence of the past; that the new coat of arms should be as simple as possible, according to the requirements of heraldry,which is all the more desirable as this would make the shape, colours and details of the arms of the capital easier to keep in memory;