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Pécs
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Coat of arms
Pécs, is the fifth largest city of Hungary, located in the south-west of the country, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administrative and economical centre of Baranya county. Pécs is also the seat of Roman Catholic Diocese of Pécs.
Pécs has been selected to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010 sharing the title together with Essen and Istanbul. The city's motto will be: "The Borderless City".
Széchenyi-Square
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”. Contrary to the popular belief, the name did not signify a single city[citation needed] (Sopianae: plural), and there are no traces of an encircling wall from the early Roman era, only from the 4th century.
The medieval city was first mentioned in 871 under the name Quinque Basilicae ("five cathedrals".) 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 ("five churches", a name identical in meaning to the German name Fünfkirchen.)
The name Pécs appears in documents in 1235 in the word Pechyut (with modern spelling: pécsi út, means "road to/from Pécs"). The name Pécs is of Slavic origin and means phonetically "furnace" in the Slavic languages (there is a town in Kosovo with similar name – Peæ). In other languages: in Latin Quinque Ecclesiae, in Croatian Peèuh, in German Fünfkirchen.
Main sights
- A good example of the city’s history and interesting past can be seen in the main square, where the Gazi Kasim Mosque still stands, and, although consecrated as a church following the retreat of the Ottoman Turks centuries ago, the crescent moon and cross of Islam are still visible on the cupola. Indeed, Pécs is the richest town in Hungary in terms of Turkish architecture, with the ruins of Memi Pasa’s Baths and the mausoleum of miracle worker Idris Baba, just two other notable remains.
