After a procedure lasting for more than a year, Pécs has been selected from the other Hungarian candidate cities to be European Capital of Culture in 2010. The city has thus received the chance to charm visitors with its cultural treasures in 2010, but Pécs plans to make cultural adventures of the four intervening years as well.
Pécs has all the resources to make the year 2010 a success. Creativity, artistic expression, organisation and execution, the diversity and original character of cultural events will definitely be a highlight. Pécs, has rich natural resources and a tremendous architectural heritage. The city’s historical and cultural traditions are unique, its atmosphere has been preserved. Visitors to Pcs will be able to imbibe the traits of 1700 years of history and cultural tradition.
The city is on the southern slopes of the Mecsek Hills, forty kilometres from the rivers Danube and Dráva, and five hundred kilometres from the Adriatic, which gives a special sub-Mediterranean climate to the city. Pécs boasts more hours of annual sunshine boasts of all Hungarian cities, which is one of the reasons why the Mecsek is famous for its vineyards and excellent wines. Local vineyards are linked by a “wine route”, which includes the celebrated wine regions of Siklós and Villány. Pécs is also an ideal starting point for day-trips to the stalactite cavern of Abaliget or the picturesque lake of Orfû. The city itself is abundant in natural beauties, criss-crossed by creeks, forests and promenades. According to legend, during the area’s Turkish occupation in the Middle Ages, Suleiman the 2nd admired the city so much that he called it a paradise on earth.
Long before the Turks, the Romans too had been charmed by the city, a provincial seat they called Sopianae. The Romans built many large buildings in the city; memories of Roman times linger on through the richly ornamented early Christian cemeteries and painted burial chambers (declared a World Heritage site). This is the most significant early Christian necropolis outside Italy. The historical importance of Pécs is also reflected in the fact that the first Hungarian university was opened here in 1367. In the founding charter issued by the Pope, the city was described as a place ideal for the “cultivation of sciences”. Pécs also served as an important religious centre: the cityscape was once shaped by the tall spires of five churches. The name itself originates from the Slavic word “five”, and the same meaning is reflected in the city’s German name of Fünfkirchen.
Pécs also has the largest medieval old town surrounded by a wall preserved in all of Hungary. Janus Pannonius, the great Hungarian humanist poet once lived here, and it is Pécs where the most important physical relics have been preserved of Turkish times. Two mosques and one minaret are still open to visitors.
In the 18th century, Pécs became a city with a vibrant cultural life: famous composers and artists settled in the city, and it was possible to listen to the works of Mozart or visit the Klimo library, which still fumctions. There were numerous rich artisan families supporting the arts, such as the Zsolnay family, whose manufactury became famous throughout Europe for its colourful ceramics. The city has a museum dedicated to the Zsolnay family and two other museums celebrating famous artists born in Pécs: Victor Vasarely and Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka.
In preparations for 2010, Pécs is closely co-operating with Slovenia and Croatia: the settlements just over the border in these countries have been invited to join the events of the Capital of Culture in order to offer a full picture of the cultural life in Southern Hungary and its neighbour countries. Pécs is now in the preparatory phase of the “European Capital of Culture 2010” project. As part of this process, representatives of the cities that are to become the cultural highlights of Europe in 2010 - Pécs, Istanbul, Essen, Nagyszeben, Luxembourg, Patras, Linz and Vilnius - will meet in Pécs this September in order to exchange experiences and ideas.
