Pécs

Monday, December 3

After checking out of the hotel, we walked to the Mosque of Pasha Gazi Kasim. This church-turned-mosque-turned-church-again sits in the middle of Széchenyi square. There were many variations of a church before the Turks took over the area and built a mosque in 1543. Turks were constantly trying to take over Pécs due to its great location as a mountain pass town. In 1686, Pécs was liberated from the Turks, but they did not tear down the mosque. They instead used it as the church by painting over a few things and adding an organ.

We then went to Sts. Peter’s & Paul’s Basilica, which is a massive church just a few blocks over. This church sits in a possible spot that the original Christian Basilica from the 4th Century sat in. A fire in 1064 and the Turkish occupation in 1543 changed the appearance of the basilica over the past few centuries. The church was restored between 1882 and 1891. They allow visitors to go into one of the four large towers, where you can see the entire city and surrounding mountains.