Pécs - The Borderless City

Pécs is a cultural gateway city

The region of Pécs has always been and continues to be a frontier zone even today. The predecessor of Pécs in the Roman age, Sopianae, lay close to the line which – according to the opinion of the day – separated the land of culture from the land of barbarians. The Turkish Pécs was situated directly on the borders of Islamic culture, while the German Pécs of the 18th century was directly on the borderline of the great German migration to East-Central Europe. Our region today lies on the south-eastern border of the European Union.

Pécs is a truly "Borderless City" that opens a cultural door to the Balkans, a region that does not yet belong to the European Union. Though Pécs is not located in the Balkans, it has a myriad links with this region, many more than any other Hungarian city. In addition to its Turkish monuments these links are also reinforced by the South Slav minorities living here. Pécs is an important site on the cultural map of Croatia too; it has a Croatian secondary grammar school, a theatre and a cultural centre.

Pécs may become the first European Capital of Culture to open a gateway to the rich multiculturalism of the Balkans, including its Islamic heritage. The seat of Baranya County may become a castle of ideas that go beyond borders, the seat of common thinking and collective action characterised by open gates rather than by walls.