Pécs
Pécs is the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the country's southwest, close to the border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economic centre of Baranya County, and the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs.
A city dating back to ancient times, settled by the Celts and the Romans, it was made an episcopal see in early medieval Hungary. It has the oldest university in the country, and is one of its major cultural centers. Pécs has a rich cultural and architectural heritage stemming from 150 years of Ottoman rule, and it contains the largest number of Turkish Ottoman buildings found in any city in Central Europe. It is historically a multi-ethnic city where many cultures have interacted through 2,000 years of history. In recent times, it has been recognized for its cultural heritage, including being named as one of the European Capital of Culture cities. The Roman-era Christian necropolis in Pécs was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2000.
Name
The earliest name for the territory was its Roman name of Sopianæ. The name possibly comes from the plural of the Celtic sop meaning "marsh".The medieval city was first mentioned in 871 under the name Quinque Basilicae The name refers to the fact that when constructing the churches of the city, the builders used material from five old Christian chapels. In later Latin documents the city was mentioned as Quinque Ecclesiae.
The name Pécs appears in documents in 1235 in the word Pechyut most likely derives from the Proto-Slavic *pęčь or from the Illyrian *penče, both meaning five. In other languages: in Latin, Quinque Ecclesiae; in Italian, Cinquechiese; in Croatian, Pečuh; in Serbian, Печуј ; in Slovak, Päťkostolie; in Czech, Pětikostelí; in Dutch, Vijfkerken; in German, Fünfkirchen; and in Turkish, Peçuy.
Geography
Pécs is located in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, in the center of the southern Hungarian county of Baranya. It is bordered by the Mecsek hills to the north, and by a rolling plain to the south. Pécs has a significant mining past. Mecsek dolomitic water is famous for its steady, balanced high density of minerals.The city of Pécs is located near the border of Croatia. Its southern part is rather flat whereas its northern part clings to the slope of the Mecsek mountains. It has a very favorable climate, and is bordered by a flourishing woody area. During hot summer nights a cooling air streams down from Mecsek to clean the air of the city.
Pécs is bordered by plains to the south, while the Mecsek mountains rise up to elevations of 400–600 meters behind the city. Jakab-hill, located in the western Mecsek, is 592 m tall, Tubes, straight above Pécs, is 612 m tall, and Misina is 535 m tall. Higher parts of the city climb up to 200–250 m, mainly Pécsbánya, Szabolcsfalu, Vasas and Somogy. Woody areas generally start from elevations of about 300 m. The Mecsek hills are marked by numerous valleys which play a key role in ameliorating the climate of the city in the absence of lakes and rivers. Waters coming down from the Mecsek hills flow into the Pécsi stream under the east–west rail road leading them eventually to the Danube.
History
Ancient Roman city
The area has been inhabited since ancient times, with the oldest archaeological findings being 6,000 years old. Before the Roman era, the area was inhabited by Celts.The city of Sopianae was founded by Romans at the beginning of the 2nd century, in an area peopled by Celts and Pannoni tribes.
In the early 2nd century, when much of today's western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire named Pannonia, the Romans founded several wine-producing colonies under the collective name of Sopianae where Pécs now stands.
The centre of Sopianae was where the Bishop's Palace now stands. Some parts of the Roman aqueduct are still visible. When the Roman province of Pannonia was divided into four administrative divisions, Sopianae was named the capital of the division named Valeria.
By the 4th century, Sopianae became the capital of Valeria province and a significant early Christian centre. The early Christian necropolis in the city dates back to this era, and the Christian tombs there are unique in their architectural design, consisting of underground burial chambers below above-ground memorial chapels, and are highly decorated with Christian murals. These tombs became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2000. By the end of the century, Roman rule weakened in the area, mostly due to attacks by various Barbarian peoples, more prominently the Huns.
Early-medieval city
When Charlemagne arrived in the area in 791, it was ruled by the Avars. Charlemagne, after conquering the area, annexed it to the Holy Roman Empire, where it belonged to the Diocese of Salzburg.A document written in Salzburg in 871 is the first one mentioning the early-medieval city under the name Quinque Basilicae. During the 9th century, the city was inhabited by Slavs and Avars, and was part of the Balaton Principality, a Frankish vassal state.
The Hungarian city in the Middle Ages
According to György Györffy's theory of place names, after the Hungarians conquered the Carpathian Basin, they retained a semi-nomadic lifestyle, changing pastures between winter and summer. Árpád's winter quarters – clearly after his occupation of Pannonia in 900 – were perhaps in Pécs. Later, when the Comitatus of Baranya was established, the capital of the comitatus was not Pécs but a nearby castle, Baranyavár. Pécs, however, became an important religious centre and episcopal seat. In Latin documents, the city was mentioned as Quinque Ecclesiae. Around 1000, the area was inhabited by the Black Magyars. The Deed of Foundation of the Diocese of Pécs was issued in 1009.The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs was founded in 1009 by Stephen I, and the first university in Hungary was founded in Pécs in 1367 by Louis I the Great.
Peter Orseolo, the second king of Hungary, was buried in the cathedral in 1046. The location of his grave is unknown. This is because the cathedral burnt down shortly after Pécs hosting the 1064 Easter celebrations by King Solomon, after him making peace with his cousin, the later King Géza I. The cathedral was rebuilt in the second half of the 11th century and stands until today.
Several religious orders settled down in Pécs. The Benedictine order was the first in 1076. In 1181, there was already a hospital in the city. The first Dominican monastery of the country was built in Pécs in 1238.
King Louis I the Great founded a university in Pécs in 1367, following the advice of the city's bishop, William, who was also the king's chancellor. It was the first university in Hungary. The founding document is almost word for word identical with that of the University of Vienna, stating that the university has the right to teach all arts and sciences, with the exception of theology.
In 1459, Janus Pannonius, the most important medieval poet of Hungary became the bishop of Pécs. He strengthened the cultural importance of the city.
The great humanist poet, bishop Janus Pannonius, developed Pécs into one of the cultural and arts centres of the country.
Ottoman rule
After the 1526 Battle of Mohács, in which the invading Ottoman army defeated the armies of King Louis II, the armies of Suleiman occupied Pécs. Not only was a large part of the country occupied by the Ottomans, the public opinion of who should be the king of Hungary was divided, too. One party supported Ferdinand of Habsburg, the other party crowned John Zápolya in Székesfehérvár. The citizens of Pécs supported Ferdinand, but the rest of Baranya county supported John. In the summer of 1527, Ferdinand defeated the armies of Zápolya and was crowned king on November 3. Ferdinand favoured the city because of the support of its citizens, and granted Pécs tax exemption. The city was rebuilt and fortified.In 1529, the Ottomans captured Pécs again, and went on a campaign against Vienna. The Ottomans forced Pécs to accept King John as their ruler. John died in 1540. In 1541, the Ottomans occupied the castle of Buda and ordered Isabella, the widow of John, to cede Pécs to them, due to the city's strategic importance. The citizens of Pécs defended the city against the Ottomans and swore loyalty to Ferdinand. The emperor helped the city and defended it from further Ottoman attacks, but his advisers persuaded him into focusing more on the cities of Székesfehérvár and Esztergom instead of Pécs. Pécs was preparing for the siege, but a day before, Flemish and Walloon mercenaries fled from the city and raided the nearby lands. The next day, in June 1543, the bishop himself went to the Ottomans with the keys of the city.
After occupying the city, the Ottomans fortified it and turned it into a truly Ottoman city. The churches were turned into mosques, complete with minarets; Turkish baths and were built, Qur'an schools were founded, and there was a bazaar in place of the market. For one hundred years the city was an island of peace in a land of war. It was the central city of a sanjak, at first in the Budin Eyalet and later, as "Peçuy", in the Kanije Eyalet.
The Ottoman era resulted in numerous landmarks, such as the mosque of Pasha Qasim the Victorious at Széchenyi Square, the tomb of İdris Baba, and the Yakovalı Hasan Paşa Mosque.
The Ottoman chronicler İbrahim Peçevi, whose work forms the main body of reference for Ottoman history between 1520 and 1640, was a native of the city.
In 1664, Croat-Hungarian nobleman Nicholas Zrínyi arrived in Pécs with his army. Since the city was well into the Ottoman territories, they knew that even if they occupied it, they could not keep it for long, so they planned only to pillage it. They ravaged and burned the city but could not occupy the castle. Mediaeval Pécs was destroyed forever, except for the wall encircling the historical city, a single bastion, the network of tunnels and catacombs beneath the city. Several Turkish structures also survived, namely three mosques, two minarets, remnants of a bath over the ancient Christian tombs near the cathedral, and several houses, one with a stone cannonball embedded in the wall.
In the 1686 Siege of Pécs, the Austrian army finally recovered the city from the Ottoman Turks. After wresting the castle of Buda from Ottoman rule, the Christian armies went on to capture Pécs. The vanguard managed to break into the city and pillaged it. The Ottomans saw that they could not hold the city, burnt it and withdrew into the castle. The army led by Louis of Baden occupied the city on 14 October and destroyed the aqueduct leading to the castle. The Ottomans had no other choice but to surrender, which they did on 22 October.
The city was under martial law under the command of. The Viennese court wanted to destroy the city first, but later they decided to keep it to counterbalance the importance of Szigetvár, which was still under Ottoman rule. Slowly the city started to prosper again, but in the 1690s two plague epidemics claimed many lives. In 1688, German settlers arrived. Only about one-quarter of the city's population was Hungarian, the others were Germans or Southern Slavs. The census of taxpayers from 1698 lists 637 families, for which Janja Živković Mandić concludes that 308 were of Croatian nationality and the remaining 329 were Hungarians, Germans, Serbs or Greeks. According to same census, István Tabo mentions 171 Hungarian, 349 Slavs and 79 Germans while Đuro Šarošac mentions that at that time in the city lived 325 Croats, 139 Hungarians, 92 Germans, 53 Vlachs and 28 Serbs. According to 1698 data, South Slavs comprised more than half of the town's population. Because Hungarians were only a minority, Pécs did not support the revolution against Habsburg rule led by Francis II Rákóczi, and his armies pillaged the city in 1704.