Monomachus Crown

The Monomachus Crown (Greek: Στέμμα του Μονομάχου; Hungarian: Monomakhosz-korona) is a set of pieces of engraved Byzantine goldwork, decorated with cloisonné enamel, in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, Hungary. It consists of seven gold plates depicting Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachus, his wife Zoe, her sister Theodora, two dancers and two allegorical figures. Two gold medallions enamelled with saints and a small piece with cut glass in a setting were also found; probably they did not form part of the same object.^[1] The group has puzzling aspects that have long made it the subject of scholarly debate; it was probably made in Constantinople in 1042.

The group was unearthed in 1860 by a farmer in what is now called Ivanka pri Nitre in Slovakia, then Nyitraivánka in Hungary.^[2] If it is a crown, it is, with the Holy Crown of Hungary of a few decades later (also in Budapest) and the kamelaukion of Constance of Aragon, one of only three surviving Byzantine crowns.^[3]