Rockmaraton

Remains of Sopianae, the Roman city of some 8-10,000 people in Pannonia Province, are found at several points below the inner city. The most important one is the Early Christian Necropolis, a World Heritage site dating back to the 4th century and the largest necropolis remaining in the European provinces. Seven of the burial chambers are open to the public under the name Cella Septichora; the main visitors’ complex includes Cella Septichora, the Peter-Paul Chamber (Péter-Pál - sírkamra), the Chamber of Jugs (Korsós sírkamra), a baptismal chapel converted into a burial site and chambers III, IV, XIX and XX. Many of the chambers are unadorned; some have surviving figurative and geometric frescoes dating back to the date of their construction and similar to Roman catacomb paintings in their style and symbology, including the St. Peter and Paul Chamber with one of the earliest depictions of Virgin Mary. A unique feature of the site is the presence of two-level chambers, which served a dual role for burial site (cubiculum) and ceremonies (memoria). The Chamber in Apaca Street was built in 390.

Built on site and from the stones of Saint Berthold’s Gothic church by Pasha Qasim the Victorious, the Turkish character of the church was restored during the most recent, early 1940s renovations. Inside the building, which functions as a Catholic church, frescoes depicting quotes from the Qur’an from the 16th century are visible. The other mosque in the city, built by Yakovali Hassan, is in Kórház Square at the western terminus of the main pedestrian street, and is also open for visit when not in religious use by the city’s Muslim community.

The Cathedral of Pécs dates back to the 11th century and the times of Peter Orseolo, second king of Hungary. Bearing the traces of the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance periods as well as the Turkish conquest when it was partially used for storage. It was renovated in Rococo and Classicist styles, but gained its modern form in the 1880s, when it was mostly restored to its imagined Romanesque origins, destroying much of the subsequent decorations. On John Paul II’s papal visit in 1990, the Cathedral gained the rank of Basilica Minor.

The upper part of the two-storey building was a chapel while the lower part, decorated with murals depicting scenes from the Bible, functioned as a burial chamber. Museum shop. Guide available.

This museum houses the largest collection of visionary painter Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry. A pharmacist by trade, Csontváry became a self-educated painter after receiving a vision at the age of 27 with a voice announcing “you will be the greatest sunway painter, greater than Raphael!” Gradually abandoning his civilian profession, he travelled the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East as well as the Dual Monarchy for inspiration, and painted strange vistas of vivid colour in a unique style that has traces of post-impressionism and expressionism, but defies classification. Csontváry has been praised by Dalí as the second greatest painter of the century after himself. A must-see.

It presents the material and spiritual culture of Hungarian and ethnic minority groups of Baranya county. Here is the second largest textile collection of Hungary.