Pecs, Hungary

Ah, Pecs...  We were so happy to get out of the big city and into a little town.  Also, we now have HEAT!  We completely underpacked cold-weather clothes and the pants were getting pretty nasty.  Our friend George Hideg suggested Pecs and I'm so happy he did!  It would never have made it onto our radar otherwise.

Turns out, Pecs is sort of a crossroads.  It was a part of the Roman Empire (with a nice early christian burial site to prove it), the Ottoman Empire (with a beautiful mosque to prove that) and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (with the gorgeous yellow and red baroque buildings and mosque-converted church to prove that).  And they've modernized very tastefully, keeping the beautiful architecture intact while adding wading pools and fountains in the central squares.  We were in love.  The kids mostly with the wading pools.  :-)

After a short (relatively- 2 hours) drive from Budapest we found ourselves in the gorgeous, walkable and warm town of Pecs.  We enjoyed walking around the streets, hanging out in central squares, eating Goulash (YUM!), and making ant farms at the outdoor restaurant...  We decided to relax and enjoy the town before our long drive to Sarajevo the next day (our longest leg).

Pecs Scenes:

Wall of locks (no one knows why, but people keep adding them)....

Making ant farms at dinner.

The highlights:

The Széchenyi square (main square), complete with wading pools and stunning architecture:

 

Another amazing man hole cover.

 

A good example of the city's history and interesting past can be seen in the main square, where the Gazi Kasim Mosque still stands, and, although consecrated as a church following the retreat of the Ottoman Turks centuries ago, the crescent moon and cross of Islam are still visible on the cupola.

Mosque turned church....

Even on the inside you can see how the church wisely kept the original Ottoman decoration (with this mihrab turned icon niche)

The Cathedral (11th century, renovated in the 19th century).  THE most amazing interior painting that I've seen in a church in a LONG time.  Simple and beautiful.

Most of the interior walls were painted with these beautiful designs...

The entrance gates.

 

Eosin glaze of Zsolnay fountain (process invented here in Pecs):

That's it...  what we didn't show were the amazing Roman ruins (underneath a glass sidewalk we had unknowingly walked over to get to the church).  We only realized this later when we were IN the Roman ruins looking up people's dresses as they walked across the sidewalk.  funny.  We spent the last of our Hungarian money on paprika before we took off since the girls were in LOVE with the goulash!