{"id":25455,"date":"2022-11-29T14:23:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T13:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/?p=25455"},"modified":"2023-01-11T14:11:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T13:11:25","slug":"the-history-of-pecs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/the-history-of-pecs\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of P\u00e9cs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

P\u00e9cs County Seat<\/a>, located in the South-Western part of Hungary<\/a>, is the fifth largest city <\/a>after Budapest<\/a>, Debrecen<\/a>, Szeged<\/a>, and Miskolc<\/a>. P\u00e9cs is the largest settlement in Transdanubia<\/a>. It is the seat of Baranya <\/a>County and of P\u00e9cs Administrative Unit<\/a>, and the centre of Southern Transdanubia<\/a>. The name of P\u00e9cs in different languages: \u00a0Pe\u010duh in Croatian<\/a>, F\u00fcnfkirchen in German, \u041f\u0435\u0447\u0443\u0458 in Serbian, Pe\u00e7uy in Turkish, its Latin <\/a>name was Quinque Ecclesiae in the Middle Ages<\/a> and Sopianae in Ancient Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9cs was founded by the Romans at the beginning of 2nd<\/sup> century A.D. By the end of the 4th<\/sup> century, it had become the centre of the Roman province called Pannonia and an important early Christian centre. The Early Christian Cemetery from this period became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in December 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A document from Salzburg from the Early Middle Ages mentions the city by the name of Quinque Basilicae (\u201cfive basilicas\u201d) in 871. After the Hungarians had conquered the Carpathian Basin in the 9th<\/sup> century, it was Baranyav\u00e1r (now in Croatia), not P\u00e9cs that became the centre of the newly founded Baranya County. However, P\u00e9cs remained an important ecclesiastical centre and the seat of the diocese. Documents written in Latin called the city Quinque Ecclesiae (\u201cfive churches\u201d). The Diocese of P\u00e9cs was founded by King Saint Stephen in 1009. The name Pechyut (P\u00e9cs road) was first mentioned in a document in 1235. Several monastic orders settled down in P\u00e9cs. The Benedictines settled down in P\u00e9cs in 1076 and they opened a hospital in 1181. King Saint Stephen had established a Benedictine monastery in P\u00e9csv\u00e1rad (a small town near P\u00e9cs) as early as 1015. The first Dominican monastery was built in 1238.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first Hungarian university was founded in P\u00e9cs in 1367 by King Louis the Great. Janus Pannonius, Bishop of P\u00e9cs and one of the most significant Humanist poets in Hungary writing Hungarian poetry in Latin, made the medieval city of P\u00e9cs a cultural and arts centre in the country. In 1476, the General Assembly was held in P\u00e9cs. King Vladislaus II and the Turks declared a truce for three years in the city in 1485. After the Battle of Moh\u00e1cs in 1526, Suleiman the Magnificent looted and burnt the city, and massacred the people. In June 1543, P\u00e9cs opened its gates to the Ottoman army. The Turks reinforced the city and turned it into a real Eastern city. The churches were transformed into Turkish mosques, Turkish baths and T\u00fcrbes (Turkish mausoleums) were built, Koran Schools were founded, and a Madrasah (school for Islamic instruction) and a Sufi monastery at Tettye were established. Pecsuj (P\u00e9cs) became a significant market town in the Balkans. Important monuments and buildings remained from the 150 years of Ottoman rule, for example, the Mosque of Pasha Qasim at the central square of the city called Sz\u00e9chenyi Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1780, P\u00e9cs was granted the title of free royal city by Queen Maria Theresa. Afterwards, the city saw a significant economic development and people\u2019s transition from being subjects of a king or a queen to being citizens of a city. Industrial development was significant in the first half of the 19th<\/sup> century. Zsolnay porcelain and ceramics, Littke Champagne, and Angster Organs became world famous P\u00e9cs based products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849, the Southern part of Baranya County was occupied by the Croats for a short while. In January 1849, General Jela\u010di\u0107 leading the Habsburg Army marched into the city. Following the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867 and the restoration of the constitution, P\u00e9cs developed at a faster rate than other cities in the country. Railways were built to connect P\u00e9cs to Barcs in 1868 and P\u00e9cs to Budapest in 1882.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of World War I, Southern Transdanubia was occupied by entente-Serbian troops until 1921, which greatly hindered the city\u2019s industrial and commercial development. World War II caused minor damage to the city despite the big tank battle that took place in the vicinity of Vill\u00e1ny, 20-25 kilometres South of the city. At the end of the 1940s, private owners were deprived of their properties and industrial plants became state-owned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war, the city\u2019s development grew to unprecedented levels, and it became a major industrial centre in the country. In the heyday of the local mining industry, hard coal and uranium ore were mined in P\u00e9cs. During that time, the population of the city grew significantly. In the 1980s, 180,000 people lived in P\u00e9cs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to mining, the building industry thrived as well. Two new suburbs \u2013 Garden City and Uranium City (Kertv\u00e1ros and Ur\u00e1nv\u00e1ros in Hungarian) \u2013 were established, and district heating was introduced in the city, as well. Mecsek Forest Park became more developed: the amusement park was built as a result of social and communal effort, and the Zoo and Mecsek narrow-gauge railway (formerly known as Pioneer Railway) were established. Many hiking trails and holiday villages in the vicinity of P\u00e9cs were established. The old TV tower and lookout tower were replaced with a new tower that has been an important symbol of P\u00e9cs ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9cs greatly suffered the aftermath of the change of regime in 1989: most industrial plants were closed down and new industrial businesses were not set up in their place, resulting in very high unemployment rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proximity of the Yugoslavian Wars between 1991-2001 greatly hindered local tourism. Coal mining had become insignificant after the change of regime and the last mine was closed down in 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2000s, the structure of the city\u2019s economy changed \u2013 it transitioned from traditional industries to new areas including knowledge, healthcare, and cultural industries. In 2010, P\u00e9cs became a European Cultural Capital (ECC); therefore, significant investments were made in P\u00e9cs, the most important ones include the building of Kod\u00e1ly Music Hall, Southern Transdanubia Regional Library and Centre for Learning, the Street of Museums (M\u00fazeumok utc\u00e1ja), and Zsolnay Cultural Quarter. The Early Christian Cemetery became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and motorways M6 and M60 connecting P\u00e9cs with Budapest were built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\u00e9cs County Seat, located in the South-Western part of Hungary, is the fifth largest city after Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1774,1627,1775],"tags":[],"usertype":[52],"class_list":["post-25455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city-life","category-the-history-of-pecs","category-this-is-pecs","usertype-local","post-variant","post-variant--saffron"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 11:07:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34569,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25455\/revisions\/34569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25455"},{"taxonomy":"usertype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pecs.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertype?post=25455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}