High-heeled slippers beneath Veszprém Cathedral

Greenish leather, metal-thread embroidery, high heels. Details of a young girl’s attire, which have survived for nearly four hundred years beneath St Michael’s Cathedral in Veszprém. Alongside a pair of high-heeled slippers unearthed from one of the crypt’s graves, a silk dress decorated with lace has also survived. The fine fabrics suggest a family of high standing. But who might have worn them?

The coffins also held clues for the archaeologists. An inscription formed from star-headed copper rivets on two previously excavated coffin lids helped to identify the final resting place of the family members of Ferenc Babócsay, the former captain of Veszprém Castle. According to Dóra Hegyi, the lead archaeologist on the dig, it is likely that members of the same family were also buried in the graves from the same period that were excavated later. However, this does not yet prove the girl’s identity.

By this time, the high heel already had an eventful history. In West Asia, footwear with heels was used for horse riding: the heel helped to keep the foot secure in the stirrup. This design appeared in Europe at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries and also found its way into men’s fashion. By the mid-17th century, the heels of women’s and men’s shoes had taken on different shapes: men’s shoes typically had chunkier heels, whilst women’s shoes had slimmer ones.

What makes this Veszprém artefact so special is the fact that it has survived. Very few items of clothing and footwear from the 16th and 17th centuries have survived in Hungary. Even the details of the embroidery can still be made out on the restored slipper.