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Sopron

Ödenburg
Sopron Ödenburg
	Sopron Megyei Jogú Város
	; ;
	Flag Coat of arms
	Nickname: Civitas Fidelissima (Most Loyal City/Citizenry)
	Sopron Location of Sopron Sopron Sopron (Hungary)
	Coordinates: 47°41′06″N 16°34′59″E / 47.68489°N 16.58305°E
Country	Hungary
Region	Western Transdanubia
County	Győr-Moson-Sopron
District	Sopron
Established	2nd century AD (Scarbantia)
Re-Established	9th century AD (Sopron)
City status	1277
Government
• Mayor	Dr. Farkas Ciprián (Fidesz-KDNP)
• Deputy Mayor	Dr. István Simon (Fidesz-KDNP)
• Town Notary	Dr. Szabolcs Sárvári
Area
• City	169.04 km2 (65.27 sq mi)
Population (2022)
• City	62,116
• Rank	15th
• Urban	98,479 (13th)
Demonym	soproni
Population by ethnicity (2011)
• Hungarians	88.%
• Germans	5.7%
• Croats	0.7%
• Romani	0.6%
• Romanians	0.2%
• Slovaks	0.1%
• Serbs	0.1%
• Bulgarians	0.1%
• Others	0.9%
Population by religion (2011)
• Roman Catholic	47.9%
• Greek Catholic	1.6%
• Evangelicals	5.6%
• Calvinists	3%
• Jewish	1%
• Non-religious	5%
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	9400
Area code	(+36) 99
Motorways	M85 Motorway
NUTS 3 code	HU221
Distance from Budapest	214 km (133 mi) West
MP	Attila Barcza (Fidesz)
Website	www.sopron.hu

Sopron (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈʃopron]; German: Ödenburg, German pronunciation: [ˈøːdn̩ˌbʊʁk] ^ⓘ) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/Lake Fertő.

History

Ancient times-13th century

When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a city called Scarbantia stood here. The site of its forum is now the main square of Sopron.

During the Migration Period, Scarbantia was believed to be deserted. When Hungarians arrived in the area, the city was in ruins. From the 9th to the 11th centuries, Hungarians strengthened the old Roman city walls and built a castle. The city was named in Hungarian after a castle steward named Suprun. In 1153, it was mentioned as an important city.

In 1273, King Otakar II of Bohemia occupied the castle. Even though he took the children of Sopron's nobility with him as hostages, the city opened its gates when the armies of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary arrived. Ladislaus rewarded Sopron by elevating it to the rank of free royal town.

16th-19th centuries

During the Ottoman occupation of Hungary, the Ottoman Turks ravaged the city in 1529, but did not occupy it. Many Hungarians fled from the occupied areas to Sopron, and the city's importance grew.

While the Ottomans occupied most of Central Europe, the region north of Lake Balaton remained in the Kingdom of Hungary (1538–1867) (captaincy between Balaton and Drava).

In 1676, Sopron was destroyed by a fire. The modern city was born over the next few decades, when Baroque buildings were built to replace the destroyed medieval ones. Sopron became the seat of the comitatus Sopron.

The town was the seat of the Ödenburg comitat near 1850.^[5] After the compromise of 1867 and until 1918, the city (known with the dual bilingual name of Sopron - Ödenburg)^[6] was part of the Habsburg-ruled Kingdom of Hungary.

20th century to present

Sopron plebiscite, French and Italian officers arrive to control the voting districts on 14 December 1921.

Following the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ethnic Germans inhabited parts of four western Hungarian counties: Pozsony (Pressburg in German; Bratislava in Czech/Slovak), Vas (Eisenburg), Sopron (Ödenburg) and Moson (Wieselburg). The German-inhabited parts of those counties were initially awarded to Austria in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). After local unrest and Italian diplomatic mediation in the Venice Protocol,^[7] Sopron's status as part of Hungary (along with that of the surrounding eight villages) was decided by a controversial, local plebiscite held on December 14, 1921, with 65% voting for Hungary. Since then Sopron has been called Civitas Fidelissima ("The Most Loyal Town", Hungarian: A Leghűségesebb Város), and the anniversary of the plebiscite is a city holiday. However, the western parts of Vas, Sopron and Moson counties joined Austria and now form the Austrian federal state of Burgenland, and Pressburg/Pozsony was awarded to Czechoslovakia.

Sopron suffered greatly during World War II and was bombed several times. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on April 1, 1945.

The city of Sopron and the village of Sopronbánfalva began to stretch towards each other at the beginning of the 20th century, they unified in 1950 and since the areas have merged.^[8]^[1] Sopron and the village of Balf unified in 1985.^[1]

On August 19, 1989, Sopron was the site of the Pan-European Picnic, a protest on the border between Austria and Hungary, which was used by over 600 citizens of East Germany to escape to the West. As the first successful crossing of the border, it helped pave the way for the mass flight of East German citizens that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

During the Socialist era, the government tried to turn Sopron into an industrial city, but much of the medieval town center remains, allowing the city to remain an attractive site for tourists.

Today, Sopron's economy immensely benefits from the European Union. Having been a city close to nowhere, that is, to the Iron Curtain, Sopron now has re-established full trade relations to nearby Austria. Furthermore, after being suppressed during the Cold War, Sopron's German-speaking culture and heritage are now recognized again. As a consequence, many of the city's street-and traffic-signs are written in both Hungarian and German making it an officially bilingual city due to its proximity to the Austrian frontier. Visitors admire the large number of buildings in this city that reflect medieval architecture—rare in war-torn Hungary. Situated close to the Austrian border, Sopron receives many visitors from Vienna (70 kilometres (43 miles) away), and from Bratislava, Slovakia (77 km (48 mi) away), as well as from the United States, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Japan, and Scandinavia, who visit to take advantage of the excellent low-cost dental services offered: Sopron boasts so many dental clinics—more than 300—that the city is known as the "dental capital of the world."^[9]^[10]

Wine production

Sopron is a significant wine producing region, one of the few in Hungary to make both red and white wines. Grapes include Kékfrankos for red wine and Traminer (Gewürztraminer) for white wine. In climate it is similar to the neighbouring Burgenland wine region in Austria, and several winemakers make wine in both countries. Blue Frankish (= Kékfrankos, Blaufränkisch), Traminer, and Green Veltliner (= Zöld Veltelini, Grüner Veltliner) are well-known Sopron wines. Sopron's Blue Frankish and Pinot Noir wines are particularly prized.^[11]

The group of ethnic German wine growers in the Sopron area in the Habsburg Monarchy were the so-called Ponzichter.

Demographics

The Main Square, Town Hall and the Firewatch Tower

Historical population
Year	Pop.	±%
1870	23,102	—
1880	25,513	+10.4%
1890	29,788	+16.8%
1900	35,703	+19.9%
1910	36,721	+2.9%
1920	38,243	+4.1%
1930	39,436	+3.1%
1941	46,120	+16.9%
1949	35,617	−22.8%
1960	41,110	+15.4%
1970	47,111	+14.6%
1980	53,945	+14.5%
1990	55,083	+2.1%
2001	56,175	+2.0%
2011	60,548	+7.8%
2022	60,090	−0.8%

In 1910, Sopron had 33,931 inhabitants (51% German, 44.3% Hungarian, 4.7% other). Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other.^[12] In 2001, the city had 56,125 inhabitants (92.8% Hungarian, 3.5% German, 3.7% other).^[13] Religions: 69% Roman Catholic, 7% Lutheran, 3% Calvinist, 8.1% Atheist, 11.9% no answer, 1% other.^[14]^[15]

Architecture

The architecture of the old section of town reflects its long history; walls and foundations from the Roman Empire are still common, together with a wealth of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque structures, often artistically decorated, showing centuries of stability and prosperity.

There is an old synagogue and other remains from the town's former Jewish community, which was expelled in the 16th century.

On Daloshegy, there is a 165-metre tall FM-/TV-broadcasting tower, nicknamed "Rakéta" (Hungarian for rocket).

Places of interest

City centre
Firewatch Tower
Walls with Roman origin
Széchenyi Square and Flag of Loyalty
Kecske Church
Esterházy Palace (baroque)
Eggenberg House
City Hall (eclectic, 1895)
Storno House (renaissance)
Fabricius House
"Two Moors" House (18th century baroque)
Chemist's Museum (15th–16th century. The house was pronounced the first national monument in Hungary by Louis II of Hungary in 1525.)
Lábasház (16th–17th century)
Gambrinus House (Old city hall)
Taródi Castle (István Taródi built the castle by himself. He started the building operations in 1945, when he was 20.)

Amusement

Cartoon Forum (From Tuesday 14 to Friday 17 September 2010)
Spring Festival of Sopron (Soproni Tavaszi Fesztivál)
Festal Weeks of Sopron (Soproni Ünnepi Hetek)
VOLT festival
Civitas Pinceszínház (Civitas Basement Theater)
Liszt Ferenc Művelődési Központ (Franz Liszt Conference and Cultural Centre )

Politics

The current mayor of Sopron is Ciprián Farkas (Fidesz-KDNP).

The local Municipal Assembly, elected at the 2019 local government elections, is made up of 18 members (1 Mayor, 12 Individual constituencies MEPs and 5 Compensation List MEPs) divided into this political parties and alliances:^[16]

	Seats	Current Municipal Assembly
Fidesz-KDNP	13	M
Opposition coalition^[a]	4
Dialogue	1

Gallery

Goat Church and Holy Trinity Column
Saint Michael's Church
County Hall of Győr-Moson-Sopron County
Fire Tower
Town Hall
Petőfi Theater
Esterházy Palace in the Temple Street
Orsolya Square and the Mary Fountain
New Street
Gothic house in the New Street
Előkapu Square
House, Kolostor Street 13.
Ikva Bridge
Statue of István Széchenyi
Bilingual (Hungarian/German) road signs in Sopron.
Bilingual sign

Sports

The women's basketball team Sopron Basket is one of the most successful Hungarian basketball team in history, with 15 National titles and success in Europe, in 2022 they won EuroLeague. MFC Sopron was a football team based in Sopron. The successor of the club is Soproni VSE.

Notable residents

Rogerius of Apulia (1205-1266), medieval chronicler
Anna Maria von Eggenberg, née Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1609-1680), Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth and Princess of Eggenberg
Dániel Berzsenyi (1776-1836), poet
Ludwig von Benedek (1804-1881), Austrian general
Franz Liszt (1811-1886), composer
Franz von Suppé (1819-1895), composer
Julius Lenck (1845 - 1901), Hungarian-German brewer, wholesaler and the founder of the Sopron Brewery (Soproni Sörgyár).
Gyula Fényi (1845-1927), astronomer
László Rátz (1863-1930), mathematics teacher
Kálmán Kánya (1869-1945), politician, diplomat, Foreign Minister
Franz Lehár (1870-1948), composer
Béla Bartók (1881-1945), composer
Charles I of Austria (1887-1922), last king of Hungary
Georg Trakl (1887-1914), poet
Mátyás Rákosi (1892-1971), politician, communist leader
David-Zvi Pinkas (1895-1952), signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence
Margaret Mahler (1897-1985), psychoanalyst
Sandor Gallus (1907-1996), archaeologist
Géza Ankerl [hu] (born 1933), Professor of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), sociologist
Alexander Gallus (born 1940), medical researcher
József Szájer (born 1961), politician
István Hiller (born 1964), politician, Minister of Culture
Mihály Tóth (born 1974), football player
Vilmos Radasics (born 1983), BMX rider
Tímea Babos (born 1993), tennis player
Botond Balogh (born 2002), football player
Balogh de Mankó Bük, Hungarian nobility
József Rokop, freedom fighter
Terezia Mora, writer

Twin towns – sister cities

Sopron is twinned with:^[17]

Bad Wimpfen, Germany
Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia
Bolzano, Italy
Eilat, Israel
Eisenstadt, Austria
Kazuno, Japan
Kempten, Germany
Mediaș, Romania
Rorschach, Switzerland
Seinäjoki, Finland
Sparta, Greece

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Sopron". Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH).
^ Eurostat, 2016
^ KSH - Sopron, 2011
^ KSH - Sopron, 2011
^ Dictionnaire universel de M.N. BOUILLET, Paris, 1852 (in French).
^ Handbook of Austria and Lombardy-Venetia Cancellations on the Postage Stamp Issues 1850-1864, by Edwin MUELLER, 1961.
^ Beigbeder, Yves (1994), International Monitoring of Plebiscites, Referenda and National Elections, Springer Publishing, p. 81
^ Éva, Sági (2013). "Sopron peremkerületeinek változása néhány példán keresztül" [Changes in the Peripheral Districts of Sopron Through Some Examples]. Soproni Szemle – A Soproni Városszépítő Egyesület helytörténeti folyóirata (The local history magazine of the Sopron City Beautification Association) (in Hungarian). 67 (2): 163–175.
^ Surmacz, Jon. "Sopron Hungarian cap city". www.ripso.com. Archived from the original on 2016-01-26. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
^ Beth, Mary. "The inciDENTAL tourist". USA Today.
^ "Wine Regions Sopron". www.winetime.hu. Archived from the original on 2016-04-10. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
^ "1910 census (English)". Archived from the original on 2008-03-29. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
^ 2001 census - Nationalities (in Hungarian)
^ 2001 census - Religions (in Hungarian)
^ Historical population of Győr-Moson-Sopron (Hungarian Central Statistical Office) (in Hungarian)
^ "Városi közgyűlés tagjai 2019-2024 - Sopron (Győr-Moson-Sopron megye)". valasztas.hu. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
^ "Testvérvárosaink". sopron.hu (in Hungarian). Sopron. Retrieved 2020-11-10.