Pécs

Pécs
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de

	Pécs
	Pécs
	Pécs
Basic data
State :	Hungary
Region :	Southern Transdanubia
County :	Baranya
Small area until December 31, 2012 :	Pécs
District since 1.1.2013 :	Pécs
Coordinates :	46 ° 5 ' N , 18 ° 14' E Coordinates: 46 ° 4 '35 " N , 18 ° 13' 41" E
Area :	162.61 km²
Residents :	157,721 (Jan 1, 2011)
Population density :	970 inhabitants per km²
Telephone code :	(+36) 72
Postal code :	7601-7693
KSH kódja:	19415
Structure and administration (as of 2019)
Community type :	city
Mayor :	Attila Péterffy (Mindenki Pécsért Egyesület)
Postal address :	Széchenyi tér 1 ; 7621 Pécs
Website :	www.pecs.hu
	(Source: A Magyar Köztársaság helységnévkönyve 2011. január 1st at Központi statisztikai hivatal )

Pécs [ ˈpeːʧ ] ( German Fünfkirchen , Latin Quinque Ecclesiae, Slovak Päťkostolie , Croatian Pečuh, Serbian Pečuj ) is the fifth largest city in Hungary and the seat of Baranya County with 142,873 inhabitants (as of 2019) . It is located near the Croatian border.

The city is the seat of a bishopric and the seat of a university as well as the center of the Danube Swabians and home to nine ethnic minorities with their own self-governments.

Pécs is located at the foot of the Mecsek Mountains and the numerous architectural monuments give the place a Mediterranean atmosphere. On October 19, 2005, the city won the national qualification for the title "European Capital of Culture 2010" and organized the year under the motto Pécs2010 European Capital of Culture .

The University of Pécs offers the study of human medicine and dentistry in German and English, as well as an English-language study of pharmacy . An English-language course is also offered at the Faculty of musical and visual arts .

history

Pécs is one of the oldest cities in Hungary and was already a settlement in prehistoric times. At the time of Roman rule, the city founded at the beginning of the 2nd century under the name of Sopianae has been an important center of the province of Pannonia since the 3rd century . It was later called (Latin) Quinque Ecclesiae ("five churches"), from which its later German name Fünfkirchen is derived. The current name of the town appears for the first time in 1235 in a document as Pechut ("Pécs way"). In 1290 the city was named Peech in a document . The meaning of the name is not clear, there are several theories about it. Pécs interprets one of them as a derivation of the Slavic root for “five” (Czech pět, Slovak päť, Serbian / Croatian pet) .

In 1367, King Ludwig the Great founded the first Hungarian university, at the time one of the earliest universities in Central Europe. From 1543 to 1686 Pécs was under Ottoman rule. Many architectural monuments from this time have been well preserved and have now been renovated. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Pécs was a center of Hungarian unitarianism . At that time the All Saints Church was shared by Catholics, Reformed and Unitarians. In 1588 the church was the scene of the Fünfkirchen disputation between Reformed and Unitarians .

Attractions

Cathedral (11th century, rebuilt in the 19th century with paintings by the German painter Karl Christian Andreae )
Episcopal Palace
Episcopal library, established in the 18th century by Bishop György Klimo
Barbakán (fortress tower)
National Theater (Nemzeti Színház) by Adolf Lang and Antal Steinhardt (opened in 1895)
Gazi Khassim mosque , converted into a Christian church
Zsolnay fountain in the main square (Széchenyi-tér), a gem of Art Nouveau with the typical eosin glaze of local majolica
Mosque of Pasha Jakowali Hassan , the best preserved Islamic building in Hungary. The prayer room serves as a museum and displays Turkish historical and art objects. Next to it is a 23 meter high minaret .
Baba Idris burial chapel
Bath of Pasha Memi (Törökfürdő; Turkish bath)
Early Christian Necropolis from late Roman times with frescoed grave chambers ( World Heritage of UNESCO )
Important museums such as the Csontváry Museum, the Vasarely Museum, the Zsolnay Museum, the Modern Hungarian Gallery and the Roman Lapidarium
Numerous monuments, picturesque squares, courtyards and street cafes with a southern flair
Botanical Garden of the University of Pécs (PTE)
Post Palace
Research Institute for Viticulture and Oenology (FVM Szőlészeti és Borászati Kutatóintézete Pécs) with one of the largest collections in the world of wine and table grapes (almost 1,200 varieties)
TV tower on Mount Misina
Church on Mount Havihegy (Schneeberg)
Ruins on the Tettye
Synagogue , built in 1869
Zoo
The Pécs Árkád is the largest shopping center in Pécs. The center built by ECE Projektmanagement was opened in March 2004 and houses 130 international and regional shops on 35,000 square meters of retail space .
Panorama of Széchenyi tér at night

The Magasház (Hungarian for "skyscraper") was an 84 meter high-rise building with 25 floors in Pécs. It was built in 1974 and has been uninhabited since 1989 due to inadequate structural engineering (corrosion of the prestressed concrete). It was considered the tallest unused skyscraper in Central Europe and has therefore even been entered in the Guinness Book of Records . Because of the location in the middle of a residential area, blasting was not an option, so it was removed from top to bottom in 2016.
The 2006 Brick Award architecture prize went to the Hungarian architects Ferenc Cságoly and Ferenc Keller for a residential and office complex integrated into the historical surroundings of Pécs.

Economy and Transport

Pécs Central Station

Pécs is the center of an industrial region ( coal , uranium , leather , ceramics , beer and cigarettes as well as electronics ). The uranium mining, which was discontinued in 1997 , was examined for its profitability from 2006 with a concession for Wildhorse Energy Limited (WHE, based in Perth , Australia). According to a feasibility study, the test wells in a region between the holiday resort Abaliget northwest of Pécs and the Mecsek Mountains near the center of Pécs, which make a fertile uranium deposit probable, in connection with the world market price for uranium, which has risen sharply in recent years, allow uranium ore mining to resume appear lucrative. On June 27, 2012, the Hungarian government gave its formal commitment for a joint venture between two Hungarian energy companies and WHE with the aim of mining the ore deposits.

Since March 31, 2010, Pécs has been completely accessible from Budapest via the M6 and M60 . The way to Budapest by motorway is about 220 km. It is about 110 km to Lake Balaton and about 35 km to the Croatian border.

In addition, Pécs is a railway junction with its main train station (Főpályaudvar) . There are two-hour intercity connections to Budapest.

Since December 2003, Pécs has had an airport in the southern suburb of Pogány with landing rights for aircraft weighing up to 40 tons. It is a purely private airport for small aircraft without scheduled services.

Residents

Population development

The following graph shows the development of the Pécs population since 1850.

Minorities

A smaller part of the German emigrants, who lived in about twenty villages in the area around Fulda in their home country , came to Hungary at the end of the 18th century. They call themselves "Stiffolder", which means Stiftsfuldaer, as their ancestors came from the Fulda monastery . There are two German-speaking kindergartens and two grammar schools in the city where German is taught as a nationality subject.

In the cultural life of the Hungarian Germans, Pécs is considered the most important city in Hungary. More than half of the German-speaking population in Hungary live in the vicinity of the city. The Nikolaus Lenau Foundation in Pécs is one of the most important German cultural institutions in Baranya County.

Pecs is so far the only Roma - school Hungary, the Gandhi School , which in 1994 took up the teaching.

Around 3,500 Jews lived in Pécs in 1944. After the German occupation of Hungary, these were ghettoized by the Hungarian authorities and deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in early July 1944 .

Sports

The PÉCSI MFC is a gambling in the third Hungarian National League soccer club.
The women's basketball team MiZo Pécs 2010 was Hungarian champions, cup winners and third in the Euroleague in 2001 and 2004.

Cultural events

From 19th to 25th March 2016 the Easter seminar of YEN ( Youth of European Ethnic Groups ) took place in Pécs, and the GJU (Community of Young Hungarian Germans) helped with the realization.
In 2013 the GJU (Community of Young Hungarian Germans) and the YEN ( Youth of European Ethnic Groups ) organized the YEN autumn seminar in Pécs and the surrounding area
In 2010 the GJU (Community of Young Hungarian Germans) and the YEN ( Youth of European Ethnic Groups ) organized the Voices of Europe in Pécs.
From April 8th to 14th, 2006, the YEN ( Youth of European Ethnic Groups ) Easter seminar took place in the city , which dealt with the peaceful coexistence of ethnic groups.
On April 11, 2006, the city was voted European Capital of Culture 2010 by a seven-person EU jury and was confirmed on November 15, 2006 by the Council of Ministers of Culture of the then 25 EU countries.
The Pécs State Theater Meeting (Pécsi Országos Színházi Találkozó, POSZT) , one of the biggest events in Hungarian theater life, takes place every year.
Rockmaraton fesztivál (music festival)
ICWiP (International Cultural Week in Pécs)
European Convival Winesong Festival
International Evening

sons and daughters of the town

József Angster (1834–1918), instrument maker, especially organ builder
Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), architect and designer
Pál Dárdai (* 1976), soccer player and coach at Hertha BSC
András Dienes (* 1974), soccer player and junior national player
Ferdinand Dorsch (1875–1938), painter and graphic artist
Adolph Engel de Jánosi (1820–1903), Hungarian industrialist
Josef Engel de Jánosi (1851–1939), royal Hungarian councilor, writer and patron
Wladimir Giesl Freiherr von Gieslingen (1860–1936), Austrian diplomat and Lieutenant Field Marshal
Leopold Fejér (1880–1959), Hungarian mathematician
Fred Forbát (1897–1972), architect, town planner and painter
Zoltán Gera (* 1979), soccer player at Fulham FC
Imre Gyöngyössy (1930–1994), director and screenwriter
Josef Maria Horváth (1931–2019), composer, pianist, professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg
Péter Horváth (* 1972), chess grandmaster
Katinka Hosszú (* 1989), swimmer
Zsuzsanna Jakabos (* 1989), swimmer
Miklós Maros (* 1943), composer
Ibolya Mehlmann (* 1981) handball player with Aalborg DH
Farkas Molnár (1897–1945), architect (Bauhaus)
Simon Péchi (1575–1642), Transylvanian Chancellor and leading Sabbatarian
Ibrâhîm Peçevî (1572 – around 1649), historiographer
Anton von Rosas (1791–1855), Austrian ophthalmologist
Elisabeth Ruttkay (1926–2009), Austrian archaeologist
Johann Schweiger , master locksmith, inventor of the pass-through key in Berlin
László Sólyom (* 1942), Hungarian politician, President of Hungary
Norbert Spannenberger (* 1969), German-Hungarian historian
Bernadett Szél (* 1977), economist and politician
Sándor Szombati (1951–2006), musician and artist, sound sculptures and kinetic objects.
Béla Tarr (* 1955), Hungarian film director
Olga Tass (1929–2020), artistic gymnast
Attila Tököli (* 1976), Hungarian football player
Emerich Ullmann (1861–1937), Austrian surgeon, first kidney transplant (on dogs)
Victor Vasarely (1906–1997), French painter and printmaker
Vilmos Zsolnay (1828–1900), Hungarian ceramic artist and industrialist

Town twinning

Finland Lahti , Finland, since 1956
Bulgaria Sliven , Bulgaria, since 1969
Croatia Osijek , Croatia, since 1973
Turkey Kütahya , Turkey, since 1981
Germany Fellbach , Germany, since 1986
Austria Graz , Austria, since 1989
Romania Cluj-Napoca , Romania, since 1990

United States Seattle , USA, since 1991
United States Tucson , Arizona , USA , since 1992
Italy Terracina , Italy, since 1996
France Lyon , France, since 1998
Romania Arad , Romania, since 2008
Serbia Novi Sad , Serbia, since 2009

Climate table

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Pécs

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	1.6	4.8	10.3	16.0	20.9	24.0	26.3	25.9	22.3	16.6	8.8	3.4	O	15.1
Min. Temperature (° C)	-4.0	-1.7	1.6	6.0	10.5	13.6	15.0	14.7	11.7	7.0	2.2	-1.7	O	6.3

Precipitation ( mm )	39	32	38	55	63	84	61	63	47	37	56	44	Σ	619

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	2.2	3.2	4.7	6.2	7.9	8.6	9.5	8.6	6.7	5.3	2.7	1.9	O	5.6

Rainy days ( d )	7th	6th	7th	8th	9	10	7th	7th	6th	6th	8th	8th	Σ	89

Humidity ( % )	84	79	72	66	67	68	65	67	70	74	82	85	O	73.2

Source: WMO ; wetterkontor.de

literature

Wilhelm Droste , Éva Zádor: Pécs: a travel and reading book . Verlag Arco, Wuppertal 2010, ISBN 978-3-938375-35-8
Konrad Gündisch, Harald Roth: Fünfkirchen / Pécs. History of a European Capital of Culture . Verlag Böhlau, 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78438-8
Pécs , in: Guy Miron (Ed.): The Yad Vashem encyclopedia of the ghettos during the Holocaust . Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2009 ISBN 978-965-308-345-5 , pp. 579f.