Ahmet Erkun

“You have to smile when you say the name of the city to get the pronunciation right.” That’s what our guide Zsuzsi — call me Susan — advised us on the way to her home-city of Pécs for today’s included tour … about 22 miles from where the Rinda docked in Mohács.

As a city with a long standing multi-ethnic cultural history, including a rich heritage left over from the 150-year reign of the Ottomans, Pécs is one of Hungary’s major cultural centers. It is a European Capital of Culture City and the Roman-era early-Christian necropolis near the cathedral is a UNESCO WHS. We were, thus, looking forward to the tour, and especially the free time we were promised to DIY our way through parts of the city.

Unfortunately, due to a motorcycle rally at our destination, things didn’t go quite as planned. Yes, we visited the sites on the itinerary, but it was rushed, and in some cases, we missed out on highlights … at least our group did. And the promised free time was reduced to a mere 35 minutes … which left us with a limited area to explore before we were rushed back to the buses. The issue, as it turns out, wasn’t just the rally crowds. Rather, the roads in and out of the city were going to be shut down at noon for the bike parade and we needed to be gone before then.

We made the best considering the circumstances, but I must admit that we were more than a bit disappointed. On with the story.

Our first stop was the Pécs Cathedral … formally, Saints Peter and Paul’s Cathedral Basilica. The foundations of the church date back to the 4th century, which falls within the city’s Roman Period. The building was modified and expanded in the 11th century … during the reign of St King Stephen. And then, again and again over the decades, construction and restoration of the building had to be repeated due to damages sustained from fires and sieges. A church that started out as Romanesque in style in the 11th century ended up as neo-Romanesque by the time of the final reconstruction between 1882-1891.

We briefly paused outside the cathedral for Zsuzsi to point out the statues that once decorated the façade and tell us about the bells in the two southern towers of the church … Mary, Paul and Frances in the eastern tower; Peter-Bell, the 8th largest in Hungary, in the western tower. The latter, which dates back to 1819, is only rung on important church holidays — and for no more than 32 seconds — to avoid damaging the tower with the bell’s vibrations.

Frankly, I have no real recollection of what the guide said about the church and the crypt, and the ornate details. What I do remember is Zsuzsi singing in the 12th century cross-vaulted, five-nave crypt to illustrate its amazing acoustics and then encouraging a group sing along of “Amazing Grace.”

We exited the cathedral and walked around to Dóm Tér [Cathedral Square]. Continuing across the square, we turned around to look back at the church flanked by two yellow buildings … the Cathedral Museum to the right, the Bishop’s Palace to the left. Incongruous, I thought, was the modern statue of Franz Liszt, leaning out over the railing of a balcony of the palace, which dates back to 1770. Turns out that the statue was installed to commemorate Liszt’s 1846 visit to Pécs. At the time, Liszt stayed at the palace as a guest, and apparently gave three concerts in Pécs … one of which was at the cathedral.

Next, a very short walk from the square led us to the UNESCO heritage-listed Cella Septichora … the largest known building in the Early Christian necropolis that dates back to the Roman Period … when the city here was named Sopianæ. The name refers to the seven apses of an octagonal building that might have been a mausoleum. Today, the visitor center — named for the Cella Septichora — houses eight sepulchral buildings, but there are others around Pécs as well.

The tombs at Cella Septichora are distinctive in that they are underground burial chambers with memorial chapels built over them above-ground. That they are highly decorated with Christian-themed sepulchral art, adds to their unique nature. It was this art that I was most disappointed in missing. Why we didn’t see them is a mystery since at least one of the groups saw at least one decorated burial chamber.

(The Google Arts & Culture link shows some good images of Cella Septichora: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/bwVR1cF…).

From the necropolis, we made our way to Széchenyi Square. On our way there, Zsuzsi mentioned that there were two festivals in the city today … though we still didn’t know about the road closure schedule at this point. One involved hundreds — if not thousands — of bikers and their rides … gathering to celebrate what they consider to be the end of the motorcycle travel season. I don’t remember what the other event was. It doesn’t matter, because it was the bikers that were front and center … the square had been designated the staging area for the bike parade that was to come!

It was at this point that we got an another disappointing surprise. Zsuzsi said that we would have just 35 minutes of free time before we had to gather at the nearby Roman Catholic church to walk back to the bus. Whaaaat?

One of the places in the square is a mosque-turned-church. Unusual, because it is usually the other way around. The Downtown Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built as a mosque on the orders of Gazi Kâzım Paşa sometime after the Ottomans occupied Pécs in 1543. It remained a mosque until the Habsburg-Hungarian troops re-conquered Pécs. It was converted into a church in 1702; the minaret destroyed by the Jesuits in 1766.

Forget getting into the church or seeing the view from what was then a mosque … which Evliya Çelebi, a Turkish traveler, praised in his travel writings in 1663. We could not get anywhere near the building through the mass of bikers filling the square. With only 35 minutes of free time, we likely wouldn’t have had time for the visit anyway.

Instead, wading through the bikers and bikes near our end of the square, we went for a stroll on the pedestrian-only Király Street. Lined with shops and cafés, this street is billed as a lively place to visit. Except that everything was closed today. One gelateria was open — Venezia Fagyizó — so we got ourselves some delicious gelato as a treat and continued our walk. We made it as far as the National Theater of Pécs. A few camera clicks and then it was time to return to our group.

Wouldn’t you know it? There were a number of people who did not rejoin the group at the designated time. I don’t know whether this was on purpose or simply because they couldn’t figure out how to get back to the meeting spot in front of the Saint Sebastian Church. Either way, we ended up killing quite a bit of time just standing around, waiting for them. Thankfully, there was an art-nouveau Zsolnay fountain in the small square that provided me with the means for keeping occupied.

Once everyone was gathered, we followed Zsuzsi to where the buses were waiting for us outside the city center so that they wouldn’t get stuck within the zone that was due to close by noon. It wasn’t a lengthy walk by any means — nor was it very difficult. We even made a quick stop outside the synagogue for photos. Nonetheless, there were a lot of complaints about having to cover the distance on foot.

Within minutes of the noon deadline, we were driving out of Pécs and back to Mohács.Read more