Pécs Saint Peter and Paul’s Cathedral (also known as Pécs Dome, Basilica, or Castle Church, or Saint Peter’s Cathedral until the end of the 20th century) is a unique beauty of Pécs and the cathedral of the Diocese of Pécs.

The foundations of the cathedral were laid in the 11th century, and the present-day look of the cathedral was achieved at the end of the 19th century based on Frigyes Schmidt’s (Friedrich von Schmidt’s) design. The organ in the cathedral is the 100th masterpiece of organ maker József Angster. Prior to Pope John Paul II’s visit to Hungary, the cathedral received the status of basilica minor in 1991.

According to the most famous Hungarian chronicler of the 13th century, Simon of Kéza (Kézai Simon), the cathedral was founded by King Peter. However, chroniclers are mistaken. The foundations of the subterranean church had been built as early as the end of the 4th century. The church had existed when the Diocese of Pécs was established in 1009. The church the chronicles refer to is the second cathedral that was built under the rule of King Peter (Orseolo) in the North-Western part of the present-day Dome Square. This is where King Salomon was crowned by Saint Maurus. Putting an end to the war between them, Géza and Salomon celebrated Easter and their reconciliation in the city on 11 April 1064. On that very night, a fire burnt down the church and the palace.

The building of the third cathedral started at the end of the 11th century when Saint Maurus was the bishop of Pécs. A five-nave subterranean church was built above an early Christian shrine, located to the North-East of the present-day dome, containing the grave or relics of an early Christian martyr. The interior statues were made by Northern Italian and French masters.

The dome unprotected by castle walls was set on fire during the Mongol invasion. In 1299, when the Muslim Palatine Mizse ravaged Pécs, the ceiling and the roof of the dome were destroyed. In the first third of the 14th century, the vault of the aisles was reconstructed, and two new chapels were built. The Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel was joined to the North-Western tower and the Corpus Christi Chapel was adjacent to the South-Western Tower.

Further construction works took place in the second half of the 15th century and were finished in the year of 1505 according to the date painted over the apsis window. The construction was overseen by Demetrius. The Gothic features of the cathedral were created during this time such as the large, pointed arches along with elaborate tracery and stained-glass windows. Many of the altars were built in this period including Altar Saint Cross (1235), Saint Gregory (1329), Saint Martin (1347), Saint Nicholas (1350), Saint Blaise (1358), Saint Daniel (1365), Saint King Ladislas (1369), Saint Emeric (1370), Apostle Saint John (1371), Saints Philip and James (1371), Saint Giles (1376), Saint Demetrius (1380), Saint Margaret (1385), Eleven Thousand Companions (1391), Saint Ambrose (1392), Saint George (1393), Virgin Mary (1402), Twelve Apostles (1407), Saint Stephen the Martyr (1418), Saint Cosmas and Damian (1424), Apostles Saint Simon and Judas (1467), Conversion of Saint Paul (1482), Saint Jerome (1483), and Holy Trinity (1512).

Humanist bishops at the end of the 15th century, Janus Pannonius and Zsigmond Hampó, and Görgy Szatmári, a confidante of Tamás Bakócz, at the beginning of the 16th century, turned Pécs into the citadel of Renaissance culture, resulting in the Renaissance features of the bishop’s church.

In 1543, the invading Turkish army easily took the city. During the Turkish rule of almost 150 years, several mosques were built. The Western part of the cathedral including chapel Corpus Christi was used as a mosque while the rest of the building was used for storing food and munition. In 1631, a lightning damaged the South-Western tower. Ahmed Agha of Belgrade renovated the tower on which he put up Turkish inscriptions using Arabic letters. These inscriptions have remained on the tower to date. In 1664, the roof of the cathedral was greatly damaged by the cannons placed in Mecsek by Miklós Zrínyi.

The liberating armies quickly recaptured Pécs in 1686 but the neglected buildings suffered the consequences of the brief siege. The Turkish did not tolerate the representation of human figures, so they damaged reliefs from the Árpád-era, repainted frescos and damaged the Szatmáry pastoforium. The liberating soldiers robbed the cathedral; their commander Gabriele Vecchi stole the clocks from the tower and the lead-plated roof. The destruction caused by the Turks, then by the German soldiers had been mostly remedied by 1703 when the next calamity struck the city. The Kuruc army led by Blind Bottyán and the Rascians wreaked havoc on the cathedral; their cannon balls collapsed the vault of the nave. Thus, Bisphop Matthias of Pécs chose All Saint’s Church as the new cathedral of the bishopric.

The war-torn cathedral was renovated between 1712 and 1732 under the bishopric of Nesselrode. Significant architectural changes were made: a new entrance with a richly ornamented gable was created in the Southern façade. From the 1740s on, new furnishings were made: the main altar was finished in 1741 based on János Krail’s design. The Rococo style sacristy was made in 1756, and the prebendal stalls were installed in 1762.

Despite the reinforcement provided by adjacent chapels and additional arches, built in the 18th century, the vault was in such critical condition in 1805 that further reinforcement was needed. The reconstruction work ended in 1831. During this time, Classical and Romantic style supporting walls were built based on Mihály Pollack’s design, Chapel Maurus of Pécs was built, and the South-Western Tower was reconstructed.

In 1877, Palatine and Bishop Dulánszky commissioned Austrian architect and restorer Friedrich von Schmidt to restore the cathedral’s aesthetics. The goal was to restore the Árpád-era aesthetics of the cathedral by the millennial celebrations and to get rid of all additions made in later periods. Therefore, on 9 June 1882, the dismantling and selling of Baroque altars, church pews and chairs began. Invaluable artistic objects representing the history of the dome and the history of Hungarian art were lost or damaged. The medieval castle walls were taken down, thus creating the present-day Dome Square. The consecration of the Dome took place on 22 June 1891 during Hungarian King Franz Joseph I’s visit to Hungary.

Between 1962 and 1963, the cathedral was renovated and Károly Antal’s modern apostle statues were displayed on the Southern façade. The original 12 apostle statues made in 1854 and the remaining two statues of the second series of apostle statues made in 1891, which are in very poor condition, are displayed in the garden of the Episcopal Theological College of Pécs. Between 1965 and 1968, the wall paintings were restored, the carved structures were cleaned, and the gilding applied to the interior surfaces was renewed. The decorative gate depicting a grape arbour designed by Sándor Rétfalvi was installed in 2000.

On 9 January 1991, Pope John Paul II gave the status of basilica minor to the cathedral, and he visited the cathedral a couple of months later.

In 2009, a time capsule from 1886 was discovered in the cross-bearing orb atop one of the towers. The glass cylinder contained coins and a hand-written parchment – all in flawless condition. Although the orb was hit by many bullets during World War II, the glass cylinder remained intact. The hand-written Latin notes on the parchment detailed the reconstruction of the cathedral that had started in 1882. The most valuable items are the coins including Austrian Guldens from 1882 and other Hungarian and Austrian silver and copper coins. In total, a one-forint note, seven Guldens and seven Hungarian copper Kreuzers were found.

In 2018, the interior of the cathedral was done up again: the sound and the lighting systems and the church pews were modernised, and district heating was installed in the cathedral.

The organ in the cathedral was made in 1887 in Angster Organ Manufactory named after József Angster. The old organ was modernised in 2008, thus making it a technologically and musically modern instrument. A new rolling digital console and a new electronic control system were added to the instrument, allowing the organ artist to play the instrument farther from the organ – even in the middle of the cathedral.

Organ specifications:
– Number of manual keyboards: 4
– Number of registers: 81
– Total number of pipes: 6101
– Length of the longest pipe: 5 metres
– length of the shortest pipe: 5 millimetres
– Weight of the longest pipe: 140 kilograms
– Weight of the shortest pipe: 14 grams

Organ case. width: 8.8 metres, depth: 4.3 metres, height: 10 metres.

Total length of windpipes: 120 metres.

As a result of this modernisation, the organ has become the largest slider chest church organ in the world.

The church bells are in the two Southern towers: the bells called Mary, Paul, and Francis are in the Eastern tower, while Peter-Bell, the eighth largest bell in Hungary made in 1819, is in the Western tower, but it is only sounded on important church holidays. The wooden structure holding Peter-Bell was replaced in 2008, as the old structure could no longer bear the large weight of the bell. The huge bell may only be sounded for 32 seconds; otherwise, the vibrations might damage the tower.