The study examines a series of coats of arms of the Hungarian and Bohemian Lands on the late
Gothic Royal Oratory of Cathedral of Saint Vitus in the Central European context. An analysis of the
history of coats of arms of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown, and principally that of Bosnia, has
resulted in three new findings. On the one hand, contrary to previous concepts, the creation of the
series of coats of arms and along with this the completion of the Oratory did not take place in the
first half of the 1490s, that is, at the beginning of the reign of Vladislaus II Jagiello (1490–1516), but
probably in the 1510s–1520s. The occasion must have presented itself during the Bohemian sojourn
of Louis II, King of Hungary and Bohemia (1516–1526) and his wife in 1522–1523, and, presumably,
the coronation of Mary of Hungary in Saint Vitus Cathedral on 6 June 1522. On the other hand, the Bosnian coat of arms proves that the coats of arms of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown on he Royal Oratory were taken over from the heraldic representation of Emperor Maximilian I in
Innsbruck instead of those of the Jagiellonian dynasty in Prague or Buda, where those were present
on several such memorials from the late 1490s (
Wappenturm
,
Triumphzug
,
Ehrenpforte
). At this time it
was only in the Habsburg heraldic representations that Bosnia was represented by an armour-clad
hand wielding a sword, while in Hungarian practice the south Slavic kingdom’s coat of arms bore
two crowns. Thirdly, based on new research it can be stated that the coat of arms of Upper Lusatia,
situated on the balustrade, could have only been placed among the coats of arms of the Lands of the
Hungarian Crown during an erroneous restoration attempt at the end of the 19
th
century. Originally,
the coat of arms standing between those of the Kingdoms of Dalmatia and Bosnia must have been
that of Croatia whose checked coat of arms was probably confused with a similar one of Upper
Lusatia depicting a castle wall
