may 2016 - pécs city guide - issue 11

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PCGPécs City Guide / May 2016 / Issue 11

INSIDE:Fragola, Magasház getting a statue, Expats in Pécs, Running tracks and more

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IN ENGLISH

2 Pécs City Guide May 2016 pecscityguide.com

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Co

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HI, I really hope that this month’s issue gets to you when the real spring has already arrived and you have the chance to follow some of the advice from Pécs City Guide. Bored by running in the streets we did test several running tracks in the vicinity of the city and found some real gems in

the nature. We cover the best of them. This can be said about events too: there are a lot of up-coming concerts, festivals that we can honestly recommend to you. A lot of them are open air events finally.

The next issue will be a sum-mer special again just like in 2015 and hopefully again on 32 pages.

Until then, any feedback is really appreciated and please feel free to contact us at: i n f o @ p e c s c i t y g u i d e . c o m . Thanks for your attention, and see you in June.

Ervin Gűth, editor

Pécs City Guide May 2016 | Issue 11The free, insert magazine of Dunántúli Napló in English. Editor-in-chief/Publisher: László Póré Managing editor: Ervin Gűth Contributor: László Nógrádi Published by Mediaworks Regionális Kiadó Kft. Baranya Megyei Irodája Sales manager: Gyöngyi Nagy Phone: +36 72 505 060, +36 30 9971 006 E-mail: [email protected] Printed at Paletta Press Nyomda Kft. 2092 Budakeszi, Szőlőskert u. 19. ISSN 08659133

Contents04

IN BRIEFMagasház statue, Dry

lidos, Zsolnay-war

06EXPATS

Ural plans his future here

08FEATURES

10 facts about Pécs, Running tracks

12DRINK & DINE

Gastronauts, Fragola, Szabadkikötő, Heti Betevő

18TO DO

Laura Gibson, Wine, spices, Pécs, Dalí exhibi-

tion, Carmina Burana

22ESSENTIALSFreemasons

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This issue’s cover photo was taken at Tettye park, the most popular park of

Pécs. The name is of Turkish origin, tekijeh, that is a building for gather-

ings of the Sufi brotherhood. The park got a huge overhaul in 2010 and it be-came even more popular. The nearness of excursion routes, the beautiful Pintér

botanical garden and the Tettye cave make it an ideal spot for relaxation.

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04


In B

rief

The works are really in progress and we really start to belive that the inev-itable end is near. The tallest uninhab-ited building of Central Europe is going to vanish by the end of the year but city council voted for a memorial! Yes, that’s right the building that was out of order for 25 years is getting a statue at the

park that will be arranged after the de-construction. According to recent plans of the city council the recrational area will have outdoor sport facilities, play-grounds etc. The green area would be a nice addition to the district and we re-ally hope that the process ain’t going to take another 25 years.

A SMALL MAGASHÁZ TO BE BUILT AT MAGASHÁZ

It’s quite hard to tell the exact date or move which started the war between investor Bachar Najari and the city of Pécs, but the battles are not fought by words anymore.

Syrian-Hungarian-Swiss busi-nessman Najari saved the pres-tigious Zsolnay Factory in 2013 and opened up new markets for its luxury ceramic products. That said Najari, who made a fortune with watches, had some interest-ing moves and has been convicted for the posession of fake watches (9,000 pieces) in 2014. Besides that according to city officials the facto-ry has a huge debt and members of the Zsolnay family have always out-ed against the businessman.

Pécs major Zsolt Páva asked the government for national protec-tion status for the factory without telling Najari. This lead to the es-calation of the war which seems to have been going on for months now. The circumstances are still not clear and Najari also says that an interest group is trying to take over the fac-tory. Even more interesting is that they showed a letter to the press that proves Pécs did want to sell its stocks. Nothing is for sure yet, but looking at the current situation tells us that this is going to be a long and nasty war.

ZSOLNAY FACTORY VS.THE CITY OF PÉCS

If you ask someone living in Pécs what the city needs we are quite sure that “more lidos” would in the TOP 5 answers of pretty everybody.

We have witnessed several debates, propositions on the issue and have heard rumours about some “serious” plans but in recent decades nothing has changed. And once again the debate is sparkling since the company owning big

parts of Balokány that had once a pop-ular public outdoor swimming pool and surrounding facilities tries to invest in revitalizing the area and building a rec-reational centre.

Are we going to get a renewed lido instead of the ruins in the near future then? Only if the city doesn’t build a lido on its own, otherwise the company could change its mind...

IT’S ONLY SURE THAT PÉCS CITIZENS WANT TO SWIM

MEMENTO MORI

MISSING LIDOS

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The best way for sightseeing: Segway Pécs. The Segway Pécs is a tourism company organizing exciting Segway tours both in Pécs and the region.

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Is Ural a common first name in Turkey?It is spelled like the mountain chain in Russia and it is not very common, though it’s gaining on popularity. It’s actually my mother’s family name. How did you get here?I studied law in Ankara and I met my now wife there who happened to be from Pécs. She was with the Erasmus programme there. We moved to Vi-enna at first and we both finished our schools there. We have been living there for five years. I worked as a bar manager and never worked as a pro-fessional lawyer. When planning our

Turkey-born Ural Sirkeci (28) finished law school in Vienna – that’s one reason he speaks four languages including Turkish, English and German. His latest addition is Hungarian, that is also the language of his wife. He opened his shop Juice & Co. last August at Jókai square which became an instant favourite in Pécs.

Expa

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future we did choose to come back to Pécs and opened this shop, since here was nothing like this. What was your first impression of the city? What is your first memory?I arrived here of course with my then girlfriend and it was also my first trip outside of Turkey ever. It was quite different from Ankara since it’s much smaller but somehow very cute too. I liked Pécs from the very beginning, the small streets etc. Actually, my first memory is from Kanta Bar that used to be where Pécsi Kávé is right now. We arrived at night and met with friends

URAL IS PLANNINGHIS FUTURE HERE

of my girlfriend. Everybody was very friendly and people from other ta-bles came and talked to me when they learned that I’m from Turkey.Do you have any favourite places in Pécs?I love hiking on weekends in the Mecsek hills. Getting a lot of fresh air. I love Király street, I love the atmos-phere there.Was anything weird for you here?Actually, I think nothing, maybe that’s why I like Pécs. People who don’t speak English try to connect with me, and somehow I feel there are hidden ties between Hungarians an Turkish people because of our common history. Okay, maybe the buildings from the commu-nist era are a little bit weird next to the beautiful city center.Are you missing something? What would be great to have in Pecs?Maybe some really good cocktail bars. A lot of venues do have cocktails but you can only find old fashioned cock-tails like Pina coladas. Sure it would be good to have an as big selection of bars and restaurants as in Budapest or Vien-na. In big cities you can try something new every week. This is the downside of small cities. Do you have a favourite venue?I love Eleven, it fits absolutely to Pécs.What do you think that you can shop again on Sundays?It was the breaking news in April. I’m very happy that the government changed their ruling after a year and lets people decide freely when to do the shopping. I have only one free day every week, and I want to decide what to do on that day. Any plans for the future?I’m going to stay in the gastronomy in Pécs. There are a lot of things missing but I want to keep my project a secret. I will have different branches in the gas-tronomy business. I’m building a port-folio in gastronomy if you want. We have brainstormings with internation-al students regularly and I keep those ideas in my mind. We want to stay here because it’s very relaxed here. We have a lot of friends and it is an ideal place to raise children. We would have more opportunities e.g. in Budapest, but we also would have much more problems and even more work. Do you learn Hungarian at a school?Actually no. I’m mainly learning from customers who come to my shop.

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Feat

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youDIDN’T KNOWaboutPÉCS1

Fünfkirchen, Sopianae Okay, maybe this one will not surpise you at all, but the German name of Pécs is

Fünfkirchen. But did you know that it’s meaning ‘five churches’ and is a direct translation of Quinque Ecclesiae, the Latin name of the city during the middle ages. Previously, between the 2nd and 5th century, Pécs was called Sopianae by the Romans, and this name comes from a Celtic or Illyrian tribe that lived here.

2 StolpersteinDuring the 2nd world war 90% of the 3000 jews living in Pécs have been deported and killed. There are several

memorials dedicated to the victims but the small bronze tiles (Stolpersteine) at Munkácsy, Lánc, Papnövelde and Szigeti street are part of an international coop-eration. German artist Gunther Demnig started an initiative to put small tiles with the name and date of individual victims at their last free street address. They commemorate those who were con-signed by the Nazis to prisons, euthana-sia facilities, sterilization clinics, concen-tration camps, and extermination camps, as well as those who responded to perse-cution by emigrating or committing sui-cide. There are 18 counties partipicating and already more than 50,000 stolper-steins have been installed.

3 Ghost-townThere are several districts in Pécs and most of them have historic or ge-ographic names. So does Árpádváros (City of Árpád), the last of commu-nist style blockhouse neighbourhoods, built in 1987. But almost nobody calls the district by its official name. Everybody is speaking of Szellem-

város that means Ghost-town in English. The name has nothing to do with spooky stories or paranormal activity: the district got its nick because of its closest neigh-bour which is the city cemetery.

4 Oldest grape vine There are several disputed entries in the Guinness World Records book, and one of these is the title of The Oldest Grape Vine. The Old Vine in Maribor, Slovenia is at least 400 years old and has a well doc-umented history. That said, it’s quite possible that the oldest vine is in

Papnövelde street in Pécs. Experts say the plant is at least 100 years older than the official record holder, but it’s hard to tell how old it really is since it could be told for sure with an analysis that could be lethal for the plant.

Weird, interesting or just unknown even by Pécs-born citizens. We collected 10 facts that may surprise you and help to know the city a little bit better.

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10facts youDIDN’T

KNOWabout

5UndergroundYou can visit the cellars of the champagne facto-ry at Szent István square any time, but there are

several other huge and connected tunnels under the city center. No-body really knows how many. The wealthiest citizens of Pécs had huge cellars and kept wine there, and because tax evasion is noth-ing new there are lot of hidden tunnels where people could hide their goods from tax collectors. Most of these have been found and are in use, but not all of them.

6 OystersIn recent years the gastronomy of the city got better and bet-ter, but we should al-

ways keep in mind that previous ages also had their best practices. Histori-ans have discovered that during Roman times the rich had fresh oysters avail-able in Sopianae. The goods were de-livered from the Adria and cooled with ice. Yes, it was insanely expensive but they managed it to bring them to Pécs before expiration date. An accomplish-ment that’s somehow still a challenge...

8 Dracula’s houseCommon knowledge is that you can’t dig a hole in the city centre without finding some relics. This is exactly what happened in 2009 when the recon-struction of Széchenyi square started: archeolo-

gists found the cellar of the house of Vlad Tepes, whose cruel-ties inspired Bram Stoker’s classic Dracula. There is no evidence that the prince ever visited Pécs, but several nobles had hous-es in the city, that was very rich in the 13th-15th century.

10 The Bauhaus connectionLooking at the city scape it isn’t obvi-ous at all that Pécs

has strong ties to the Bauhaus movement. But fact is that 7 of the 20 Hungarian Bau-haus members are from the city. Only a few works of Marcell Breuer, Alfréd Forbát, Farkas Molnár, Andor Weininger, Hugó Johan, Hen-rik Stefán and Etel Kovács can be seen in the city and most of them aren’t in a good condi-tion. One of the most successful exhibitions of 2010, when Pécs was the European Capi-tol of Culture, was dedicated to their works.

9 The Oldest HouseThe Zsolnay Museum in Káptalan street is one of the most popular tourist destinations in town. The marvellous collection of ceramics, and relics of the Zsolnay dynasty is worth a visit but the

building has a remarkable history on its own. According to the museum this is the oldest house in town that is still stand-ing. It was already there in 1324, at which time it functioned as the house of the grand provost.

7The Liverpool of HungaryWhy would anybody say something like that? Not because of the cli-mate, the buildings or any other similarities, but the influence in music. That’s right, since the 1960s the Pécs had such a vivid and influential music life that people started to compare it to the influence that Liver-

pool had on the music life of the UK. Actually, this comparison has been started by cultural and music journalists, but there must be some thruth in the term. Just two facts: in the last three decades there was always at least one band from Pécs be-tween the most popular groups of Hungary. In the 1990s there was Kispál es a borz, in the 2000s 30Y. And in the 2010s it’s Halott Pénz (pic above) and Punnany Massif, both that popular right now that both are playing on the main stage of Sziget Fes-tival. And the second fact: let’s not forget about all the small local bands. In Janu-ary 2016 almost 100 performed during a one-day festival organized for them. And why are so many bands in Pecs? Maybe because of the climate or the buildings that are so different from Liverpool. Or there is something in the water.


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RotaryThe route on Mecsek hill is actually an ed-ucational trail for botanics that was set up in the 1930s. The 3 km long track (this is the official distance, but my running app measures 3.4 km) takes you around the Small-Tubes and Tubes. It’s an ideal running track since there is almost no elavation. The ground is also very good, easy to handle for your knees and ankles. Since it is a very good track it can get crowded, especially in the weekends when familes go hiking, but there should be no problem if you go ear-ly enough. It can be reached by car at La-pis-road (there is a small parking lot). Or you can take the 35Y bus from Kórház square to Misina tető and look for the signs.

MalomvölgyThe Malomvölgy lakes are in the outskirts of Pécs and a very popular destination for family picnics. A lot of citizens call Malom-völgy their ultimate running track. The track is usually in good condition and there are signs indicating the distance every 500 m. There is one smaller and one bigger route. This first option is to run around the big lake only which brings you to 3.4 km. The lengthier track brings you to around 5 km. This is what the signs say, but run tracking apps measured a somewhat smaller dis-tance. You can find toilets and rain shelters, and the atmosphere is lovely. The biggest problem is getting there if you don’t have a car, but biking is another option.

RUNNING TRACKSIt’s never too late to start running. You only need a good pair of shoes and determination. Sure, you can do it on the streets, but the clean air and inspiring atmosphere, the quality of the tracks make it an even more exciting experience. Getting to these places is not always easy, but definitely worth stepping out of your comfort zone.

Tüskésrét The lake used to be the dumpster for the power station of Pécs, but the coal plant has been transformed and is 100% green now. Meanwhile, the recultivation of the area has been finished and it’s absolutely safe now. The wakeboard track here is popular but citizens come to the lake because of the running track. The 1.2 km long track is ideal for beginners and advanced runnners too. The outdoor training facilities are great. Though there are some downsides here: a lot of people don’t use the track proper-ly and the toilet is only available when the wakeboard track is open. It has a huge park-ing lot but it’s easy to get there by bike or several bus lines (e.g. 6, 41, 42, 123, 71).

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Last year saw a successful start for the Gastronaut Festival in Pécs, offer-ing several locations, dozens of delica-cies and plenty of activities for an ac-tion packed day in the heart of the city. The second festival concentrates on five locations in and near Király street, mostly courts that are somewhat off the busiest tracks. But for this one day, these confined spaces open up and at-tract the gastronauts, tempting them to visit each and spend a whole day getting to know to new tastes, sounds and people.

Let’s start our tour – obviously on foot – in the western outpost, the Pic-nic Court in Káptalan street, offering family events in real picnic-spirit, lo-cal gastro products and straightfor-ward street food. A little downhill stroll takes us to the Brewer Court (inside the

block of Jókai and All’ Elefante) where beer is the drink to go for together with matching snacks. The entertainment is served by a brass band, loud and clear. Just over Széchenyi square awaits the Gourmet Court, set up in Nick passage, connecting the main square and Király street. Here you can expect great lo-cal wines with finger food, garnished with stylish of jazz and classical music. Of course, you could stay here for the rest of the day, but hey, why not see the rest? Drop by Király street 9, the court-yard of the downtown library. Here ret-ro is still king: under the name of Cup Court, traditional coffee and tea can be enjoyed (most ideally with biscuits) in the company of literary works in musi-cal setting. Király street has even more to offer: just get to Szabadkikötő and its Reform Court, where special diets like

gluten free, living and raw foods meet eco-conscious living and alternative music. As a special supplement, a local design store joins with a pop-up street fair, so shopping for trendy merchan-dise is also an option.

How does all this come togeth-er during a whole day and basically for free? A group of enthusiasts be-lieves in events where the inner city can be turned to a meeting space for local businesses, citizens and tourists with the power of sampling, conver-sations, activities and generally hav-ing a good time. The events start at around 10am and lasts roughly un-til 7pm, so there is plenty of time to wander around and discover. Should you need experts to show you around, VisitPécs! also offers guided bike tours and organized walks.

YOU CAN BE A GASTRONAUT

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Király street is getting longer and longer. Okay, not physically but in re-cent years there is a process that makes it worth walking all the way from Széchenyi square to the oth-er end. This was started by Nap-pali and later Streat joined the game. A little more than a year ago Szabadkikötő became the latest addi-tion and I did love their concept from the very beginning. The place did grow in terms of space and offers too, that’s why it was time to pay a visit again.

The glasshouse behind the bar is a great spot in the winter but I have doubts that it will work during daytime

SZABADKIKÖTÖ HAS A GREAT VEGETARIAN DAILY MENU

in the summer. That said, I like the ruin pub atmosphere and it’s quite cozy al-ready in the morning. But I was heading there for their vegetarian lunch menu.

I had to wait a little bit, so I started with a coffee and it was much more than okay. The selected beans come from Lumen that is a coffee shop and micro roastery in Budapest. The other beverage offers are also good: several craft beers are available. I also do love that they have a lot of wines from the Tolna wine region.These are quite un-dervalued despite the fact that you can find real gems. But drinking alcohol was not the purpose of my visit.

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SPICE IT UP

I always do appreciate new vegetar-ian options in Pécs and Szabadkikötő has a daily offer for customers con-cerned about healthy eating. Though it’s not an all day option since they start serving lunch at 11.30am until they run out of supplies. So you have to get there in time. The last time I had a great potato soup and vegetarian patty with a spicy vegetable sauce and cornmeal. A soup and a main dish cost HUF950. They do have a lot of reci-pes, it doesn’t get boring easily. They use a lot of spices, fresh ingredients and these are just enough reasons to give it a try.

pécsi sör in the bottleGreat news from one of the oldest

breweries of Hungary: the latest addi-tion to their product line is called Pécsi Sör, meaning ‘beer from Pécs’. Actually the beer was already available for some years but only on tap.

The - almost - new brand follows a recipe from the 1920s that has been updated to meet the needs of pres-ent day customers. What you get is a smooth taste achieved by the usage of quality ingredients. Did you know that only the purest karst water from

the Mecsek is used for the recipes of the brewery? You will have the chance to taste Pécsi Sör and several other unique beers from the factory at the traditional May Beer Festival on loca-tion. That’s right in the factory. During the two daya several live performanc-es, concerts take care of your enter-tainment. Of course, no beer festival can’t exist without proper food to get you through the day.May Beer Festival, May 20-21, Pécs Brewery (Alkotmány st 94)

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The competition between ice cream shops hasn’t been that fierce in years. There are at least three shops where you can go for sure, and we are hap-py that the Hungarian franchise Frago-la opened recently its first shop in Pécs. They have several shops in Budapest, and other Hungarian cities and these al-ways differ slightly from each other.

Their ice cream is not made in Pécs

in the shop on Király street, but comes from Budapest. This circumstance does not bother us at all, we do understand that this can be a good way of quality assurance.

And when we speak of quality we know what we are talking about. We

FRAGOLA SERVES SOME OF THE BEST ICE CREAMS

tried several different flavours and all of their craft ice cream had equally good properties. One typical feature of craft ice cream is that they don’t use any ar-tificial flavouring. For the untrained tongue, this can be a little bit frustrat-ing since the natural flavours aren’t as intense as artificial substitutes, but on the long run you can easily understand why these ice creams are more superior.

Their taste is much more com-plex, and you have to pay atten-tion to realize that.

One portion costs HUF250 but there are weekly offers and special discounts. We test-ed the Chocolate chili, the Car-amellized figs, Coffee, and Yo-ghurt-strawberry flavours. All of them are excellent in

taste though only the coffee and yo-ghurt-strawberry will be favourites. The chili-chocolate isn’t hot it has just a little twist, but definitely not what you would expect from an ice-cream. There are zil-lion tastes to try and that’s what we are going to do.

heti betevő

Once again there is a great charity action gaining ground in town: more and more pubs, restaurants and cof-fee shops deploy a jar next to their cash registers. They don’t collect tips for themselves but collect mon-ey for the Heti Betevő action group.

The idea of collecting donations at shops isn’t new at all, but Heti Bete-vő, that started in Budapest, makes the process quite transparent. Not just literally. They collect local donations and de-liver free meals to locals in need. This way the community sees where their money is going almost instant-ly. The organizers of the movement in Pécs hand out free food every second week - this is the timeframe when enough money can be collect-ed for sure. Almost 20 venues do already have jars set up next to their cash regis-ters, and even more are expected to join. You can find a map of par-ticipating venues on Facebook. See more: fb.com/pecsihetibetevo.

Finally, Király street has great

ice cream too

COOL & DELICIOUS

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If there was an award for the Most Of-ten Re-branded Event of Pécs our nomi-nee would be the first real outdoor fes-tival at Széchenyi square. It changed its name (right now: Bor, Mámor, Pécs) and its focus several times, but there are al-ways just enough re-occuring elements that make it still recognizable. For ex-ample the extreme grilling contest (open registration for teams in advance)

The Oregon-born singer-songwrit-er, Laura Gibson may not be one of the best known artists from the US, but her work is usually well received by critics all around the world. But if the badge “critically acclaimed” is not enough for you, just listen to her songs like La Grande. Her biggest success up-to-date is a melancholic, dark piece

packed with lots of energy and great rhythms (and rhymes). Her latest al-bum titled Empire Builder came out on April 1 and she tours all around Europe until the end of May. The free live per-formance at Trafik is brought to the audince by Kinos Sessions.May 5, 9pm, Trafik (Perczel st 22) Free. More: lauragibsonmusic.com

KINO SESSIONS: LAURA GIBSON <US>

WINE, SPICES & MUSIC or the free concerts by Hungarian jazz, folk, rock and blues artists.

For the second time, a great addition to the 4 day event is the selection of the Wine of Pécs on May 6, 3pm at Pécs Gallery. Everybody can participate and help to decide which the official wines of the city for one year should be. May 4-8, Széchenyi sq. Free. More: fb.com/pecsifesztival

FOLK POP

The Carl Orff classic’s adaptation for two pianos and percussion is not an everyday delight absolutely worth to listen to. The playlist of the evening gets another twist by starting with Ravel’s Bolero. May 14, 6pm, Kodály Centre (Breu-er Marcell st 4) HUF 990-2900. Info: pecsprogram.hu

CARMINA BURANA

ZSOLNAY PICNIC

Thanks to mild spring weather cul-tural and arts festivals can go open air for sure in the end of May and Zsolnay Picnic is a one weekend long take of the genre where free events and evening concerts peace-fully complement eachother at the lovely cultural centre.May 20-22, Zsolnay Cultural Quarter Info: pecsprogram.hu

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MetamorphosisOn this evening Kelemen Quartett (see pic) joins the Kodály Centre res-ident Pannon Philharmonics for the second time. On program: the over-ture from Carl Maria Von Weber’s Oberon; Bohuslav Martinu: Concer-to for String Quartet and Orchestra; Paul Hindemith: Symphonic meta-morphoses of themes by Weber. June 2, 7pm, Kodály Centre (Breuer Marcell st 4) HUF 1000-4990. Info: pfz.hu/en

Metronom Jazz Club pres. Kriszta PocsaiThe monthly jazz concerts at Zsol-nay Cultural Quarter are the most reliable live events in terms of quali-ty. This time with Krisztina Pocsai and her trio. The singer earned reputa-tion as a music teacher, speech ther-apist and vocal therapist. The setlist will include her own compositions as well as well-known standards. June 8, 8pm, E78 (Zsolnay Cultural Quarter) HUF 990/1300.

Pannon Wine Region TOP 25The best wines of the Villány, Sze-kszárd, Pécs, Tolna wine region are introduced at this annual event. And wich are the best? The best are cho-sen by a selected jury of independent wine experts who judge the samples at a blind test. It’s really worth to get the tickets in advance since there is only place for 300 people. June 11,3pm-8pm, Hotel Palatinus (Király st) HUF4000/5000.

PREVIEW:EVENTS IN JUNE

German art-collector Thomas Emmer-ling started collecting litographs influ-enced by Dalí’s words “Welcome into my brain” some decades ago. His ini-tial goal was to have all the works by the painter that are inspired by Dante Alighieri’s 14th-century epic poem Di-vine Comedy. The collection is now on display in Pécs.

The classic poem from the 15th cen-tury Italy describes Dante’s travels through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise and is divided in three sections accord-ingly. At a deeper level, it represents, al-

DALÍ’S GRAPHIC ART SURREAL

legorically, the soul’s journey towards God. Just the perfect inspiration for the surrealist painter.

The exhibition has 100 works about the epic poem on display but the paint-ers other print works can be seen too. Much could about them said but maybe one word is enough: Dalí.

Another unique addition is delivered by the limited edition French playing cards illustrated by the surrealist icon. April 28-October 29, Tue-Sun: 10am-4pm, Vasváry-ház (Király st 19), HUF650 /1150.

Spanish surrealist icon Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) illustrated several lit-erary works. The exhibition at Vasváry-ház honors mainly the painters works created for and inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy. Some less-er-known playing card illustrations by the master are on display too.


Flying has been an unfulfilled dream of mankind for several thousand years. Every ancient civilization

admired and depicted flying creatures – some of them living only in legends. Even in late medieval and early mod-ern times there were only attempts to make flying possible and sever-al of these trial and error experiments ended in serious injury or death. But thanks to brave and obsessed man ex-perimenting went on for centuries. Fi-nally, in the beginning of the 20th cen-tury, slightly more than 100 years ago, flying became a real possibility availa-ble to the masses.

Suprisingly, the citizens of Pécs could have their first encounter with a flying machine already in 1907, during an ag-ricultural exhibition. And it only took less than two more decades to have an airport in the city. Maybe ‘airport’ is a too strong and defi-nite word, you shouldn’t think of any-thing like today. Let’s say it was an air-port-like facility. Located at what is called Uránváros today (Tüzér street) a huge area functioned as a place for

take-offs and landings. When not in use by air traffic – this means most of the time – it operated as a trotting ground for horses. Legendary times in-deed.

Civilian airborne transport and sched-uled flights have a long tradition in Hungary, and in Pécs too. There were regular domestic flights that connect-ed Budapest and Pécs already from the second half of the 1920s. Even one unit of the first Hungarian air force, called Vörös Kakas (Red Cock), was stationed here. And this was the decade when the first civilian flying associations started operation in town.

Also the first hijack in Hungarian his-tory is connected to the Pécs-Ka-posvár-Budapest domestic airline: in 1949 two passengers forced the plane to land not at its original destination but in Switzerland. A quite unique way of fleeing from communist Hungary.

A new chapter started in 1956, ex-actly 60 years ago. The growing city needed more housing possibilities: af-ter several years of planning and con-

struction a whole new district called Uránváros has been born. The airport had to leave town and was relocated to a nearby village, Pogány. Domestic flights were operated by state owned companies but all lines have been can-celled in 1961. There was not enough money and demand. And these are fa-miliar problems even today.

Despite the fact that the airport’s run-way has been renewed in 2003 and the facilities three years later there are no regular domestic or interna-tional flights. Austrian Airlines’ flights connected Pécs with Vienna only for a couple of months in 2006. There used to be charter flights to Bulgaria and Greece but these have been also can-celled due to financial problems. There are always plans that the airport should be developed (the biggest problem is that the runway is only 1.5 km long), but another fact is that nothing really happened ever since.

We can list only three main reasons to keep the airport alive: there are a lot of hobby pilots, the emergency helicopter stationed in Pogány, and hope...

FROM ABOVEby

Ervin Gűth

Esse

ntia

ls

23

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may 2016 - pécs city guide - issue 11

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