Skull Discovered in Ruined Hungarian Church May Belong to Legendary King Matthias Corvinus

A skull unearthed in the ruins of a medieval Hungarian church might just belong to one of Europe's most legendary monarchs. Emese Gábor, a Hungarian facial reconstruction specialist, thinks the remains could be those of Matthias Corvinus, the famed King of Hungary and Croatia who ruled from 1458 to 1490.

The skull showed up in the ossuary of the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Székesfehérvár. For centuries, this site served as the final resting place for Hungary's royalty—until the Ottomans raided it in the 16th century and a fire reduced it to ruins in 1601. Honestly, medieval kings just can't catch a break, even in the afterlife.

Nicknamed Matthias the Just, the king was famous for overhauling the army and enacting major judicial reforms. Now, his possible skull is under the microscope—literally. Gábor found an "exceptionally high degree of morphological similarity" between the newly discovered skull and that of Matthias's son, János Corvinus. As if that weren't enough, the skull's greenish tinge suggests a metal crown once adorned it, leaving behind the royal equivalent of a grass stain.

Other details match up, too: the age at death (43–48 years, with Matthias dying at 47) and the estimated height (172 cm) both line up with historical records. Gábor even whipped up plastic facial reconstructions, using detailed proportional and morphological evaluations, to compare the skull with known likenesses.

But the story doesn't end here. Researchers plan more tests, including full DNA and isotope analyses, to confirm if this really is Matthias Corvinus. If so, we might finally see the true face of a king who left his mark on Hungary—and whose skull is now making headlines centuries later. Sometimes, history just refuses to stay buried.