P�cs: Hungarian rhapsody in a European Capital of Culture

By Nigel Tisdall Published: 12:13PM GMT twenty-three February 2010

Previous of Images Next P�cs in southern Hungary, is conspicuous "paitch" Photo: Corbis Key exhibitions will see at Hungary"s estimable grant to the Bauhaus character and the work of fashionable painters well well well known as "The Eight" Photo: Corbis P�cs can be visited as piece of a informal discuss that additionally takes in the surrounding lakes, forests, spas and castles

It"s been twenty-five years given that great appropriation juggernaut well well well known as the European Capital of Culture programme strike the road. Athens was the initial city to begin the county chest-beating, followed by Florence and Amsterdam. Perhaps you recollect Glasgow in 1990, or Copenhagen in 1996, when the Danes staged one of the most appropriate shows to date. I unequivocally goal you stop Liverpool (2008), whilst last year it was oh, come on! Vilnius and Linz.

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Back in 1985 the EU usually had 10 members. Today there are 27, and right away even countries anticipating to join, such as Turkey, get invited to the party. This year the honours have depressed mutually on Istanbul, Essen and the Ruhr, and, er, Pcs in southern Hungary. No, I"d never listened of it possibly so if one role of this jamboree is to pull courtesy to Europe"s ignored informative jewels, afterwards something has already been achieved. Pronounced "paitch", the collateral of southern Transdanubia pipped Budapest and multiform opposition cities to a pretension that doesn"t usually move a possibility to lamp with pride, siphon in extraordinary tourists and have your streets dug up for 3 years. The adults of Pcs will additionally get discernible benefits, quite a new unison hall, living room and informative quarter, along with the prevalent spruced-up parks and museums.

But should we all pour out there? Well, sadly, there are no approach flights, nonetheless it is candid sufficient to wing on down to Budapest, afterwards take a two-hour minibus send south to Pcs. And whilst this self-proclaimed "Borderless City" (a anxiety to a multicultural birthright that includes poignant German, Croatian and Romany communities) is positively engaging, it is probably most appropriate total with a little days in the Hungarian collateral or as piece of a informal discuss that additionally takes in the surrounding lakes, forests, spas and castles.

One key captivate is the Mediterranean meridian open comes early and summers are hot. Another is the internal wine, with the full-bodied reds from Villány quite value befriending. The non-Eurozone prices are additionally welcoming a bottle of the really excusable stimulating booze Fünfkirchen, done to honour a revisit by Pope John Paul II in 1991, costs a small �3.50. A juicy plate of pressed cabbage, served in a loose grassed area grill such as Minaret, will set you behind all of �4. Hungarian transport tends to be robust, with challenging portions, the menus a bewildering variety of crow legs, catfish, purple cabbage, crushed onions and dumplings along with the tasty lecsó (a meal formed on peppers, onions and tomatoes) and oddities such as "Bachelor-Getter"s Soup" (the tip ingredient, girls, is green thickk cream with dill).

Southern Transdanubia is a land of rural bounty, quite important for the almonds that usually hardly excuses the over-life-size statue of Elvis sneaking in the groundwork of the Marzipan Museum, sculpted with 103kg of the white stuff. Far some-more appetising is the party of internal furnish on sale at the city market, where warm stallholders lay contentedly next to charming volcanoes of plums and apricots, thread up prolonged necklaces of paprika, and sternly ensure esteem timberland mushrooms as if they were key exhibits from an autopsy.

So what does it meant when your home town, that has usually 153,000 residents, unexpected becomes a European Capital of Culture? "It"s a approach for Hungary to deliver itself to the world," suggests Csaba Ruzsa, handling executive of Pcs 2010. "We"re awaiting a twelve to fifteen per cent enlarge in visitors, but intend to keep things relaxed." A challenging monthly calendar of events has been organized charity all from the clearly requisite puppet legal holiday to a as if short universe discussion clinging to haikus. Key exhibitions will see at Hungary"s estimable grant to the Bauhaus character and the work of fashionable painters well well well known as "The Eight", who flourished in the decade heading up to the First World War.

This is a city where the some-more you see the some-more you find. In the executive square, Szchenyi tr, the emblematic copper-domed Mosque-Church stands as a sign of the 143 years Pcs outlayed underneath Turkish rule. Nearby, a staggering synagogue non-stop in 1869 struggles on with a assemblage of usually 300 worshippers prior to the Holocaust, it was 4,000. In the inlet of Cella Septichora, a well-displayed set of early Christian funeral sites that forms a Unesco World Heritage Site, biblical faces glance up from the inlet of time. Find a moment, too, for the Csontváry Museum, that celebrates the unaccompanied prophesy of a visionary Slovakian house painter lauded by Picasso. Another venue is clinging to a internal hero, Victor Vasarely, the "father" of Op-art, whilst the glorious Zsolnay Museum tells the story of the city"s eminent ceramics factory, that constructed the shimmering tiles that accoutre most glamorous buildings flourishing from the excellence days of Austro-Hungary, together with a magnificent post bureau built here in 1904.

Chat with the locals and it shortly becomes transparent that Pcs" preference as a Cultural Capital simply reflects the abounding universe of a university city where something is regularly going on, be it a festival, notable muster or array of concerts. Its year of celebrity is usually one of most accepted issues inspiring hold up in a abounding provincial centre such as an outlandish offer to cover over Király utca, the principal walking street, and the consistent discuss as to that cukrászda (patisserie) serves the most appropriate cakes. Is it Virág, where you can unleash your forints on a tawny white kozáksapka, made similar to a cossack"s hat, or a chocolatey lúdláb (goose leg)? Or may be the close rival, Mecsek, where the afternoon treats embody the popular, caramel-topped dobos, declared after the venerable Hungarian confectioner who combined it in 1884, and the classic, walnut-filled Eszterházy?

As I dutifully set to work with my baked sweat bread fork, I can usually determine that, whilst the annual European Capital of Culture roadshow can at times appear a rather sleepy and uninteresting affair, if it encourages us to take a punch of somewhere new, it certainly contingency be worthwhile.

Getting there

Malv (0844 482 2360; malev.com ) flies every day from London Gatwick to Budapest: lapse fares in Apr cost from �90 together with taxes. Travel4you (00 36 72 215 694; travel4you.hu ) offers convey transfers in between the airfield and Pcs, from �26 one way.

Where to stay

Hotel Palatinus (00 36 72 889 400; danubiushotels.com) dates from 1915 and couldn"t be some-more central, but is murky - from �43. In the mountainous country on top of Pcs, the bedrooms at Hotel Bagolyvár (00 36 72 513 213; bagolyvarpecs.hu) are cheerily flashy on folkloric themes, and there"s a renouned grill with excellent views, from �53. Hotel Kikelet (00 36 72 512 900; hotelkikelet.hu) is a highly evolved 1936 Bauhaus-style gem that"s had a � la mode makeover an outside pool creates this a great preference for high summer, from �100. Rates are for a stand in room in Apr with breakfast.

Further information

Hungary (Lonely Planet, �15.99) is an present guide, or hit the Hungarian National Tourist Office (00800 36 000 000; gotohungary.co.uk) For a programme of informative events during 2010 see pecs2010.hu.