Cologne and Aachen

The badge was found on Granary Island (Wyspa Spichrzów) in the heart of the old city of Gdańsk. The badge was almost intact when it surfaced from the layers that were used to elevate the utility area of the island in the 15th century. The upper half of the badge shows a dress held up by two figures, one on each side. In combination with three towers on top of the badge, this element refers to the tunic of the Virgin that was kept in Aachen Dom. This relic attracted thousands of of pilgrims annually, especially every seven years when the relics were shown to pilgrims. During those seven-yearly demonstrations, badges were produced in large amounts to meet the demands of thousands of pilgrims.

Below the tunic are two heads. In the literature about the finds on Granary Island they are identified as a man's and a woman's head and it is concluded that these are the heads of Charlemagne and a female saint, for example Catherine of Alexandria or Barbara. Although these saints are often combined with images of the tunic on badges from Aachen, they are rarely this prominent and never just their heads. Furthermore, there are remains of a third head in the middle. This leads to another, more plausible identification of the busts as the reliquary heads of the Three Kings, kept in Cologne. Other medieval badge are known to show a depiction of the three heads of these kings, especially on medieval bells (Kunera nos 04529-04531 and 04544). Two additional fragments of similar badges have been found in London (Kunera nos 02861 and 02862).

Combining the tunic of the Virgin and the heads of the Three Kings the badge from Gdańsk focuses on relics centralizing the birth of Jesus. First, the Virgin wore the tunic at the time of Jesus's birth according to tradition. Then, shortly after his birth, the kings came to visit the child in Bethlehem after a vision about a new-born king. The badge thus visualizes not just two cults and also two closely related moments in the lives of the Virgin and her son.