CITIES ON THE PLAIN, CITIES OF THE HILLS:

SETTLEMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND FUNCTION*

The Cities and Towns of Medieval Hungary

as Economic and Cultural Centres and Places
of Coexistence. The Case of Pécs

István PETROVICS

The paper consists of two parts. In the first chapter the author gives a general survey of medieval
Hungarian urban development, calling attention to the characteristics of urbanization of the Carpathian
Basin in the Middle Ages. In the second chapter the author explores the medieval history of Pécs, see
of one of the oldest and wealthiest bishoprics of Hungary. The author concludes that the medieval city
of Pécs – despite its legal position, namely that the city fell under the jurisdiction of the bishop and the
cathedral chapter – was functionally a ‘real city’ (town), the economic, ecclesiastical and cultural centre
of south-western Hungary, where foreign ethnic groups (Germans, ‘Latins’ and Croats) lived in large
numbers. He stresses that the medieval history of Pécs can greatly contribute to the better understanding
of the characteristics of a special type of town, the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees, the research of
which can still be regarded as a neglected field of urban history in Hungary.
KEY WORDS: Hungary, medieval history, urbanization, Pécs.

n this paper, after a short introductory survey of urban development in

I medieval Hungary, I will focus on the history of the city of Pécs.

I. General features of urban development

in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary
he first urban civilization in the Carpathian or Middle Danube Basin
T was created by the Romans who had occupied this region, with the
exception of the Great Hungarian Plain, during the first and second cen-
turies A.D.1 The Roman towns of the provinces of Pannonia and Dacia
were swept away by the Great Migration of the Peoples from the fifth to
*
This section was coordinated by Mária Lupescu Makó. 5
Colloquia, volume XVIII, 2011
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

the ninth century. The Hungarians, who arrived in the Middle Danube
Basin in the late ninth century and soon occupied the whole of this region,
were semi-nomadic people.2 Consequently, with the Hungarian Conquest
(Hungarian: Honfoglalás, German: Landnahme) towns did not emerge
automatically here.
Towns came into being as a result of a long social and economic devel-
opment only after the establishment of the Hungarian state, which, in a
symbolic sense, emerged with the coronation of the first Hungarian king,
Saint Stephen on 1 January 1001. Medieval Hungarian towns, just like
European towns, had two main characteristic features: first they combined
the functions of a stronghold and those of an economic, mainly trading
centre, and secondly, they enjoyed wide ranging autonomy. The latter
meant that they had the right to elect their own magistrates, including the
mayor and the aldermen – to use the English terms –, who were responsi-
ble for the management of economic and administrative affairs of the town.
Hungarian towns, however, had some very special features. In this respect
it should be stressed that only a few dozens of them were fortified with
stone walls in the later Middle Ages, and, some of them, enjoyed a wider
range of self government than their western counterparts. This is proved
by the fact that they had not only the right of electing the headman of the
town who was named in Latin iudex (Hungarian: bíró, German: Richter),
i.e. judge, and who was empowered by royal privilege with the right of
administering justice, but they also had the right to elect their own parish
priest.3 Moreover, hospites, i.e. foreign guests played a great role in the
development of Hungarian towns.
It should be noted already at this point that in the history of Hungarian
urban settlements two special stages can be distinguished: one period,
that preceded, and the other, that followed the beginning of the thirteenth
century. Urban-type settlements in Hungary functioned as important
economic centres already before the beginning of the thirteenth century,
but they did not enjoy real legal autonomy, and, from the topographic
point of view, most of them were made up of two components (the castrum
and the suburbium), or had a spatially divided structure, where crafts-
men, merchants and administration were not placed in a closed territorial
unit, but in smaller separate settlements. This is why these localities are
referred to in recent scholarly literature as pre-urban or proto-urban towns.
Among them were royal seats: Esztergom, Fehérvár, Óbuda, sees of arch-
bishoprics and bishoprics: Esztergom, Kalocsa, Pécs, Eger, Csanád (today
Cenad, Romania), Várad (today Oradea, Romania) etc., and county castles:
Csongrád, Bács (today Baì, Serbia), Vasvár etc. where the royal officials of
the counties (the comites) had their seats.4
The thirteenth century, primarily the years following the Mongol inva-
sion of 1241/2, brought several serious changes in the socio-political and
economic life of the kingdom. This is the time when the elements of money
6 economy emerged in Hungary, and the realm, parallel with the decline of
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

the trading contacts with Kiev and Constantinople, became an integral part
of the western European economy. Links tying Hungary to Germany and
Italy had become ever closer. These fundamental socio-economic changes,
together with the royal grants of urban charters, brought about the emer-
gence of ‘real towns’ in great numbers in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary.5
It is evident, that even pre-urban towns frequently had hospes com-
munities, but the number of foreign guests only increased significantly
after the Mongol Invasion. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the hos-
pites came primarily from Flanders, Northern France (Walloons), Lorraine
and Lombardy. Since they were, except for the Flemish settlers, Romance
speaking people, the Hungarian sources in the Latin language referred to
them as Latini, Gallici and Italici. They were followed in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries by Germans (Teutonici and Saxones). In contrast with
the Latin guests, the immigration of the Germans, in the long run, turned
out to be much more significant and from the second part of the thirteenth
century German ascendancy became obvious in most of the towns of the
Hungarian Kingdom.6
In Transylvania and in the Spiš (Szepes, Zips) region, located in the
north-eastern part of the Hungarian Kingdom, where they were invari-
ably called Saxons, their settlements formed large and contiguous blocks.
Besides these regions, the towns of the western borderland, for example,
Pozsony/Pressburg (today Bratislava, Slovakia), Nagyszombat/ Tyrnau
(today Trnava, Slovakia) and Sopron (Ödenburg), just to mention the most
important ones, the mining towns and, of course, Buda, the medieval capi-
tal of the realm, were also places where Germans lived in large numbers in
the Late Middle Ages.7
It should also be noted that from the thirteenth century onwards the
term hospes primarily referred not to foreign immigrants, but to such per-
sons who during the process of colonization had acquired a distinctive
legal status, but were not necessarily of foreign origin. This fundamental
change meant that anybody enjoying that special legal status – regardless
of ethnic origins – could be referred to as a hospes. Thus, in addition to the
Latins and the Germans, Hungarians, Armenians and Slavic people were
also among the hospites. The dominant impact of guests in the evolution
of the burgesses is demonstrated, among others, by the fact that the most
commonly used phrase of the charters referring to burghers was: cives et
hospites. Nevertheless, the term civis was at first used in a narrower sense,
alluding solely to the most influential group of urban society, that is, pri-
marily to the iurati cives (members of the town councils).8
It is also a sign of changes that conscious royal policy aiming at fos-
tering urban development in Hungary dates from the 1230s. It was King
Béla IV (1235–1270) who issued the first charters securing urban privi-
leges to localities in Hungary: Fehérvár: 1237, Nagyszombat (today Trnava,
Slovakia): 1238. The consequences of the Mongol invasion accelerated
this royal policy, as a result of which the number of real towns, that is 7
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

settlements which enjoyed wide-ranging legal autonomy, increased sig-

nificantly. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries some 50 settle-
ments were granted a royal charter in Hungary. This number refers, on the
one hand, only to those localities which were situated in Hungary proper,
that is north of the River Drava (in other words Dalmatian and Slavonian
towns are not included in this number), and, on the other hand, which
were not ecclesiastical centres (‘archi/episcopal towns’).9
At this point it should be stressed that the privileges granted by the
king could not compensate for the lack of a favourable geographical loca-
tion. Consequently, many towns founded by the king turned out later to
be poorly situated economically, and were unable to develop despite their
extended privileges. In other words: these localities – sooner or later –
dropped out of the network of Hungarian towns.
Another particular and characteristic feature of town development
is that the nature of urbanization in medieval Hungary was determined
by two factors: one of them being the production and export of gold and
the other the import of luxury goods. The network of towns that came
to life in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was essentially created
by these economic circumstances. The most important towns emerged at
places where consumption was concentrated: in the middle of the king-
dom where the royal court resided, along the frontier where merchants
from abroad entered the kingdom, and in the mining regions where pre-
cious metals were produced. Consequently, Hungary’s urban network had
a strange, semicircular shape, which more or less followed the ranges of
the Carpathian Mountains. It is very conspicuous, but in the light of the
above facts not surprising, that within this semicircle in the southern part
of Transdanubia, on the Great Hungarian Plain, and in the Temes region,
towns can hardly be found.10 There are only two localities in this area
which were towns of outstanding importance: Szeged and Pécs, the latter
being, in fact, an episcopal seat. However, the case of Pécs, or rather that of
Oradea (Nagyvárad) shows that an economic upswing did not necessarily
depend upon the granting of a privilege. Despite the fact that Oradea had
neither walls, nor real self government, and its inhabitants were not cives,
but, in fact, the tenants of the bishop and the chapter residing in the town,
thanks to its favourable geographical location, it, nevertheless, became
one of the most important trade centres of the realm. It had the right to
hold nine annual fairs, plus one in Olaszi and another in Vadkert, which
makes altogether eleven annual fairs in the agglomeration of Oradea.11
The urban network of fifteenth century Hungary was constituted,
above all, by 30 localities which were regarded as royal free towns. Among
them were the mining towns: Selmec-, Körmöc-, Beszterce-, Új-, Baka-,
Béla-, Libetbánya (present-day Banská Štiavnica, Kremnica, Banská
Bystrica, Nová Baėa, Pukanec, Banská Belá, L’ubietová – all in Slovakia),
and Nagybánya (present-day Baia Mare, Romania), and the towns of
8 the Transylvanian Saxons: Nagyszeben, Brassó, Beszterce, Medgyes,
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

Szászsebes, Szászváros, Segesvár (present-day Sibiu, Braĩov, Mediaĩ,

Bistriįa, Sebeĩ, Orâĩtie, Sighiĩoara – all in Romania). However, the most
illustrious group of the royal free towns was formed by the so-called free
royal or tavernical towns, represented by the eight walled localities that
came under the jurisdiction of the tavernical bench, headed by the mag-
ister tavernicorum: Buda, Sopron, Pozsony/Bratislava, Nagyszombat/
Trnava, Kassa, Bártfa, Eperjes (present-day Košice, Bardejov, Prešov – all
in Slovakia). Pest, the eighth town, due to its rapid development, could
join this group, in all probability, in 1481, i.e. during King Matthias’ reign.
Another group was formed by those towns which could appeal to the court
of the personalis, i.e. to the sedes personalita: Esztergom, Székesfehérvár,
Lĝcse, Szakolca, Kisszeben (present-day Levoìa, Skalica, Sabinov – all in
Slovakia), and Szeged.
Besides the ones, mentioned above, there were many other towns in
the realm, but these had already passed under private lordship, their
inhabitants were not, therefore, considered free burghers. Some of these
towns were fortified, as were Kĝszeg, Kismarton, Szalónak (present-day
Eisenstadt and Stadtschlaining, Austria), Trencsén, Beckó, Késmárk (pre-
sent-day Trenìin, Beckov, Kežmarok – all in Slovakia), Siklós, or episcopal
towns, therefore they were referred to as civitates, though, in fact, they
were not free towns. However, the overwhelming majority of the towns
belonged to the category of oppida, i.e. they were unwalled localities and
were subject to seigneurial jurisdiction. Some of them were under the
seigneury of the king: Komárom (present-day Komárno, Slovakia), Tata,
Nagymaros, or the queen: Óbuda, Ráckeve, Miskolc, Beregszász (present-
day Berehove, Ukraine), and the five towns of Máramaros (present-day
Maramureĩ, Romania) salt-region, others were subjected to secular or
ecclesiastical lords.12
The most important conclusion that can be drawn from the facts pre-
sented above is that the town in the legal sense of the word should not be
confused with the more general idea of the town as a commercial centre or
as a central place. Until quite recently Hungarian historians worked under
the influence of István (Stephen) Werbĝczy who codified Hungarian cus-
tomary law in the early sixteenth century.13 Werbĝczy wrote in his famous
work, The Tripartitum: “A city in fact is a great number of houses and
streets, necessary walls and fortifications, privileged for a good and hon-
est life.”14 By stating this, Werbĝczy became the ideological ‘father’ of those
scholars who later followed the legally defined concept of medieval town.
Nevertheless, in the second half of the twentieth century Hungarian
historians have thrown off the last vestiges of legal and institutional defi-
nitions, so there is a general acceptance now that the town of the Middle
Ages was a centre primarily of non-agricultural economic activities, char-
acterized by a diversity of occupations, especially those involved in trade
and industry, located in a permanent settlement of larger size and high
density. Thus the social and economic life of the town has been recognized 9
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

as its defining characteristic. In addition to the above mentioned features,

English, German and French scholars, mostly historians, archaeologists
and urban historical geographers, listed other very significant criteria as
well: defenses, a planned street-system, a role as a central place, a mint,
plots and houses of urban type, complex religious organization, a judicial
centre etc.15
Unfortunately, in the case of medieval Hungarian towns many of these
criteria are missing. Consequently, a special method was required in
Hungary, with the help of which urban type settlements could be defined
and ranked. At first, following certain western European models,16 scholars
have focused only on one single criterion. Consequently, they have arrived
at incorrect conclusions. Thus, it soon became evident, that a complex
method was necessary when classifying urban and quasi-urban localities
in Hungary, and when one sought to determine how urbanized a certain
settlement was. For this purpose the theory of central places seemed to be
applicable. The theory of central places was developed by Walter Christaller
in the 1930s in South Germany. It took, however, quite a long time before
this aspect of urban functional relations and the inter-urban system were
also investigated for different historic periods. Scholars, mostly historians,
focused initially on trade and marketing as major central functions, but
later other aspects (social, political, judicial and cultural etc.) also became
significant. There are, however, some reservations which have to be made
at this point, for centrality is historically a uniform concept, but here
real difficulties arise because centrality can be based on principles which
although related are, nevertheless, substantially different. On the other
hand, it also happened that highly specialized activities created urban set-
tlements, where centrality, in its classic sense, had little part to play.17
Despite many difficulties, András Kubinyi managed to make the concept
of central places fit medieval Hungarian circumstances, and with the help
of his research results it can easily be established how urbanised a certain
settlement was. Kubinyi, as it was usual in post WWII research of central-
ity, introduced certain ‘bundles of criteria’ into the discussion. Taking into
consideration the special features of medieval Hungarian urbanisation, as
well as, the peculiarities of the Hungarian written source material, he set
up ten categories for the investigation of major central functions. Within
these categories Kubinyi scrutinized the following factors: local and central
administrative functions, including both royal and noble residences; judi-
cial functions, including the activity of places of authentications; monetary
administration; ecclesiastical administration; church institutions, both
monasteries of religious orders (including chapter houses) and convents
of mendicant orders; number of students attending foreign universities,
mostly those of Vienna and Cracow, between 1440 and 1514; number of
craft and merchant guilds; the position of the locality as a traffic junction
(staple right included); the number and frequency of weekly markets and
10 annual fairs; the legal position of a certain locality, including terminology
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

(civitas, oppidum, civitas seu oppidum) referring to the settlement. All these
data can be quantified, therefore they give an objective picture about the
differnt settlements. A certain locality could gain maximum six central
place points in each category, and 10 times 6, i.e. altogether 60 points in
Kubinyi’s system.18

Figure 1. Major settlements and trade routes in late medieval Hungary

According to Kubinyi’s estimation there were altogether 1200 central

places in fifteenth century Hungary, of which only 180 to 200 can be
regarded as urban type localities. However, the overwhelming majority of
these places, approximately 150 settlements can be regarded as towns
only in the economic sense of the word. To put it another way: medieval
Hungarian central places can be ranked into seven categories,19 of which
only the localities belonging to the first four categories, and possessing
minimum 16 central place points, can be regarded – functionally – as
towns. In order to demonstrate Kubinyi’s research results, we are going to
mention a few examples for the four categories. The numbers in brackets
are the numbers of the maximum 60 points that a locality could gain as a
central place on Kubinyi’s scale:

Category I: Towns of primary importance:

Buda (55); Pozsony/Bratislava (49); Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca (45);
Kassa/Košice (43); Székesfehérvár (43); Szeged (42); Pest (41); Sopron (41);
Várad/Oradea (41). 11
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

Category II: Towns of secondary importance:

Pécs (39); Esztergom (38); Bártfa/Bardejov (33), Eperjes/Prešov (32).

Category III: Towns of minor importance and oppida with major urban
functions:
Nagybánya/Baia Mare (29); Lippa/Lipova (28); Debrecen (28);
Kismarton/Eisenstadt (22).

Category IV: Oppida with medium urban functions:

Kĝszeg (19); Visegrád (17); Kisszeben/Sabinov (16)20.

After this short survey of the history of towns and cities in medieval
Hungary, it is possible now to proceed to the case of the city of Pécs.
This was a deliberate choice on my part, since Pécs, as its central place
points suggest,21 was – despite its legal position – functionally a ‘real city’
(town), the economic, ecclesiastical and cultural centre of south-western
Hungary, where foreign ethnic groups (Germans, ‘Latins’ and Croats) lived
in large numbers. It is also exciting to explore the medieval history of Pécs,
because it can greatly contribute to a better understanding of the charac-
teristics of a special type of town, the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees,
the research of which can still be regarded as a neglected field of urban
history in Hungary.22

II. The medieval city of Pécs

1. The beginnings
he city of Pécs is located in the south-western part of modern Hungary,
T close to the present Croatian border. In 2010 Pécs shared the honours
and responsibilities of being the European Capital of Culture with Essen
and Istanbul.23 The city’s motto was: “The Borderless City”.
Pécs’ historical importance as a regional centre began in Roman times.
A Celtic settlement, which the Romans re-named Sopianae and devel-
oped, stood within what are now the boundaries of the city. It rose to
prominence in the late third century A.D. when the Province of Pannonia
was divided into four parts: Pannonia Prima, Pannonia Secunda, Pannonia
Valeria and Pannonia Savia. Sopianae became the administrative centre of
Pannonia Valeria. Sopianae survived the end of the Western Roman Empire
(476 A.D.), but the centre of the locality, during the Great Migration of the
Peoples, was displaced from the Roman town to the territory of the early
Christian cemetery, lying north of the former. (See Figure 3)
Although many scholars assert otherwise, it is quite unlikely that in
the Carolingian period the town belonged to the Frankish Empire, for the
simple reason that its eastern border did not reach the Danube. Therefore
it is hardly probable that the name Quinque Basilicae, that appears in the
12 Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, refers to Pécs.24
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

Figure 2. Major
settlements
and roads on
the territory
of Province
Pannonia

Source: Borbála
Maráz, Marcus
Aurelius. Bronze
Emperor-Portrait
from the Roman
Lugio (Pécs:
Janus Pannonius
Múzeum, 1997),
pp. 16–17.

Figure 3.

Source: Béla
Kovács (ed.),
Pécs – évezredek
öröksége [Pécs
– Heritage of
Millennia] (Pécs,
1997), cover
page.

13
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

2. Church organization, ecclesiastical institutions

Pécs continued to be the key town in this region in the Middle Ages.
This successor to the ancient Sopianae was named Quinqueecclesiae in
Hungarian documents written in Latin, Fünfkirchen in German, and Pécs
in the vernacular. It is also important to note that medieval Pécs was the
seat of one of the wealthiest bishoprics of the Kingdom of Hungary. The
diocese of Pécs was established by King Saint Stephen in 1009 and can be
regarded as one of the oldest bishoprics of the Hungarian Kingdom.25

Figure 4. The Hungarian church c. 1095. Designed by László Koszta, drawn by Richárd Szántó

The city of Pécs also housed a cathedral and a collegiate chapter house
which functioned as famous place of authentication. Furthermore, one
hospital and three convents belonging to various mendicant orders (those
of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Our Lady of Mount Carmel) were also
to be found within the walls of the medieval town in the Later Middle Ages,
together with three parish churches that took care of the religious life of
the inhabitants of Pécs. In addition to the afore-mentioned ecclesiastical
institutions, a parish church and a convent belonging to the Dominican
nuns were to be found in the suburb of Pécs, named vicus Malomséd/
Malomszeg, that was located next to the north-eastern part of the town
walls. The Augustinian hermits also appeared in Pécs and had a convent
there which also stood extra muros, and was very close to the convent of
the Dominican nuns in the Malomséd/Malomszeg vicus.
14
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

Figure 5. Ecclesiastical topography of medieval Pécs. Drawn by András Kikindai

Source: Tamás Fedeles, „Eztán Pécs tðnik szemünkbe.” A város középkori históriája 1009–1526 [“Then
We Catch Sight of Pécs.” The Medieval History of the City 1009–1526] (Pécs: Pro Pannonia Kiadói
Alapítvány, 2011), p. 49.

One of the most outstanding bishops of Pécs, William of Coppenbach

(1361–1374), gained his fame because, in 1367, together with Louis I of
Anjou, King of Hungary (1342–1382),
he founded the first university of the
realm. He then served as the first chan-
cellor of this studium generale until
his death in 1374. It is remarkable
that, unlike the universities of Prague,
Cracow and Vienna, the Hungarian
studium generale was established not
at a royal residence, but at an episco-
pal seat. To understand this peculiar
situation, it should be remembered
that even though it was the Hungarian
king himself who submitted the plea a
for the foundation of the university to
the Holy Father, the establishment off
the studium generale, as well as, the
proposal for its location can be asso-
ciated, in fact, with Bishop William of Figure 6. The coat-of arms of Bishop William 15
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

Coppenbach. Since the university was financially supported exclusively by

the bishops of Pécs, it is quite evident that its activity declined after the death
of its founder. Although its second chancellor, Valentine of Alsán, Bishop
of Pécs (1374–1408) did his best to take care of the expenses involved in
the operation of the university, there is no documentary evidence inform-
ing us about the activity of this studium generale after the early fifteenth
century. Although some historians and archaeologists doubt it, Mária G.
Sándor, who led the excavations on the territory of the bishop’s castle,
asserts: the building of the medieval university can be identified with that
large edifice which was unearthed by her to the north of the cathedral.26

3. Topography
The structure, the morphological and topographical development of
the medieval city of Pécs was determined by several factors, among which
the most important are: its geographical location along the southern
slopes of the Mecsek mountain and the fact that it was an episcopal see.
Furthermore, some elements of the Roman heritage (e.g. cella septichora)
also contributed to the peculiarities of this city.

Figure 7. The city centre of modern Pécs (The black line indicates the walls of the medieval city)
16
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

Following from the fact that Pécs was under the jurisdiction of the bishop
and the chapter house residing here, the city consisted of two main compo-
nents: the ecclesiastical and the ‘civilian’ town. The former was made up of
two parts: the bishop’s castle that comprised primarily the cathedral itself
and the bishop’s palace, and the quarter that belonged to the cathedral
and the collegiate chapter house. The bishop’s castle, in its present form,
was built after the Mongol invasion of 1241/2, while it is belived that the
walls of the city were erected in the fifteenth century. The bishop’s castle
occupied the north-western part of the city, and since it was built together
with the city walls, it served as an organic part of the city’s bulwark. The
quarter that belonged to the chapter house (in Hungarian: káptalani város)
emerged in the thirteenth century, after the common way of life (vita com-
munis) of the canons had come to an end, and the canons had moved to
independent dwelling houses.27

Figure 8.The medieval castle of the bishops of Pécs. Reconstruction by Gyula Gosztonyi

The ‘civilian’ town that in the Late Middle Ages occupied the whole
southern and north-eastern part of the modern city centre, also emerged
as a result of a long development. Originally smaller settlements came
into being within the later town walls, which, as a result of subsequent 17
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

expansion, were built together, and finally occupied nearly the whole ter-
ritory of the modern city centre. The centres of the original settlements
(later the different quarters of the city) were the parish churches and the
convents of the mendicant orders. The territory encircled by the city walls
was far less densly built: part of the area lying south of the bishop’s castle,
for strategic reasons, was more or less vacant, in other cases documentary
evidence reveals that extensive gardens, vineyards and orchards belonged
to the dwelling houses. The city’s main streets were an east-west axis and
a north-south artery that intersected at the centrally located market place
(Hungarian: piactér). The city had four gates at the opposite ends of the
east-west axis and the north-south artery. Unfortunately, it is not known
how many streets the city had exactly. Medieval sources, to be more pre-
cise charters issued prior to 1526, reveal the names of seven streets, plus
one from 1542. Furthermore, the Turkish defters from 1546 and 1554,
name another seven streets. Most of the streets were paved with stone,
and for the most part the dwelling houses were also built of stone. For the
sake of curiosity, I refer to a charter from 1489 which informs us that Vlad
ĭepeĩ, voivode of Wallachia and his wife Jusztina Szilágyi had owned a
stone-built house in the city in the late fifteenth century.28
Extra muros, i.e. outside the city walls, two suburbs existed, of which
the Malomséd/Malomszeg vicus, lying to the northeast of the city walls,
was the more significant. The other suburb came into being around the
western gate of the city (Szigeti kapu), close to the Franciscan convent.29

18 Figure 9. The city plan drawn by Joseph Haüy, 1687

 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

The structure of the medieval city is well demonstrated by the plan

drawn by Joseph Haüy, military engineer of the imperial army that recap-
tured the city of Pécs from the Ottomans in 1687.30 (See figure 9.)

4. Society
Though Pécs and its burghers were legally subject to the bishop and the
cathedral chapter, their privileges were relatively extensive. Consequently,
Pécs was a thriving commercial centre during the Middle Ages, even though
it could never become a royal free town. The hospites of the city are first
mentioned in a charter issued in 1181. This royal document enumerates
the hospites by name and even refers to their headman as maior:
“… a certain lady with the name Froa, wife of provost Marcell, came to
me, King B(éla), and told me that once she wanted to donate a certain village,
named Zeles, to the house of the Hospitallers, but in the course of time she
thought it proper to change her decision … Witnesses of this action were …
from among the guests of Pécs Hermann, headman of the guests, his son,
Endus, Matus, Marouit, Carnoldin, Michael, Philipus, Pousa, Johannes,
Rudlep, the priest Burgardi, Turus, Johannes de Sopudh, Pacas, Cefu and
Pous who was placed as steward to that village by comes Farkas.”
On the basis of the guests’ names, scholars maintain that the hos-
pites came to Pécs from the area of the medieval German–French lan-
guage border. The influx of Latins was followed by that of Germans
around the 1330s. The first German iudex appears in written documents
in 1352 (‘magistro Sreyberio cive ac iudice civitatis Quinqueecclesiensis’).
Unfortunately, the number of Germans living in medieval Pécs cannot be
estimatied. Nevertheless, documentary evidence clearly shows that they
soon outnumbered the Latin guests of the town and came to form the larg-
est foreign ethnic group in Pécs. The trading activity of the German burgh-
ers of Pécs flourished until the town fell to the Ottomans in 1543. More
than a dozen German burghers are known by name from the late medieval
period, among them two judges: the above-mentioned magister Sreyberius
from 1352, and around 1527 Wolfgang (Farkas) Schreiber. Some burghers
even enjoyed dual citizenship, being citizens of both Pécs and Vienna, while
others had family contacts with burghers living in Pozsony/Bratislava,
Sopron and Buda. The ecclesiastical institutions of Pécs also testify that
the town had a significant German citizenry: one of the four monasteries
belonging to the order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Hungary stood in
the town of Pécs, and its friars were almost exclusively ethnic Germans
(surprisingly enough, their monastery was placed under the protection of
a typical Hungarian saint, Saint Ladislas). Lastly, the fact that a charter
from 1444 refers to the vicus Theutonicalis proves that the German burgh-
ers of Pécs, in all probability, lived in a separate street. Unfortunately, the
location of this street is unknown. Although 1444 is the only year in which
this street appears in Christian sources, Turkish defters from 1546 and 19
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

1554 prove that the vicus Theutonicalis still existed in the late fifteenth and
early sixteenth century.
Given the geographical location and the trading contacts of the town,
it is not surprising to find that there were also Slavic people living in Pécs
in the Middle Ages. These people may have come from Slavonia or Croatia,
and were ethnic Croatians. Their presence in the town is testified indirectly
by a street name. In a charter issued in 1476 by Janus Pannonius, Bishop
of Pécs,31 mention is made of the ‘street of the Croats’. It is noteworthy that
in the Latin text of the charter the street is referred to by a Hungarian ver-
sion of its name: ‘in vico Horvathutza vocato’.32
Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of the townsfolk in the Middle
Ages consisted of Hungarians, who lived partly within the city walls, partly
in the suburbs, mostly in the Malomséd/Malomszeg vicus.
Documentary evidence reveals that nobles also preferred living in the
medieval city of Pécs to their country residences. This is proved by the fact
that many of them bought a dwelling house in the city. The first reference
to a noble owning a house in Pécs is from the mid-fourteenth century, but
data from the fifteenth century are also known. It is very conspicuous that
the Pauline Fathers, although they did not have a monastery in the city
itself, owned several dwelling houses in Pécs.33
Since Pécs was an episcopal city, clerics were also to be found in large
numbers among the townsfolk. It is worth mentioning that one of the
largest and wealthiest cathedral chapters of Hungary functioned in Pécs,
to which at least 40 canons belonged. Furthermore, a smaller collegiate
chapter house, four parish churches, five convents and a Beguine house,
together with a hospital, were to be found in Pécs. Consequently, the num-
ber of clerics within the townsfolk was relatively high.34
Beside the burghers, nobles and clerics many other people, servants
of the burghers, seasonal workers etc. also lived in the city. Nevertheless,
their legal status essentially differed from that of the burghers. To put it
another way: these simple people did not enjoy full citizenship in Pécs, as
it was general in medieval cities and towns all over Europe.
Unfortunately, and owing to a lack of good source material, it is very
difficult to tell anything about the number of the population of the city.
Considering several factors (the relatively big territory of the city, that was
encircled by walls, the high population density of Baranya county, where
Pécs was located, and the general population of Hungarian towns etc.), it
seems that the number of the total population of the city of Pécs in the late
fifteenth – early sixteenth century might have reached 4–5 thousands.35

5. Economy
The economic life of medieval Pécs was determined basically by three
factors: first by its favourable geographical location and pleasant climate,
secondly by the fact that due to the presence of the episcopal see and resi-
20 dence, and of the chapter house that acted as a very significant place of
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

authentication, it was an ecclesiastical centre of outstanding importance,

and thirdly that it was situated in a region which, although it had a very
high population density, was without significant towns. The fertile arable
lands around the city were ideal for crop and wine growing, and provided
enough produce not only for local consumption, but also for long distance
trade. The citizens of Pécs could participate in the fifteenth-sixteenth cen-
turies in the international cattle trade that prospered between Hungary
and Italy. Craft industry also flourished in the city: the great number of
clerics living here contributed remarkably to its development. Charters
and particularly Turkish defters provide information on the different
branches of craft industry. There is documentary evidence concerning the
presence of tailors, tanners, butchers, shoemakers, bone carvers, barbers,
millers, potters, sword-makers, carpenters, blacksmiths and goldsmiths
etc. in the city. The activity of goldsmiths was extraordinarily important
since they produced liturgical objects necessary for the clerics. They also
satisfied the needs of the wealthy citizens. Surprisingly enough, there is
documentary evidence for the existence of only one craft guild. This is
the guild of goldsmiths. Foreign, mostly German and ‘Latin’ merchants
also lived in Pécs. The former were mainly interested in the cloth trade,
while the latter in the cattle export trade. From the point of view of craft
industry the suburb named Malomséd/Malomszeg vicus, that emerged to
the northeast of the city walls and along the Tettye stream, was particu-
larly important: most of the mills working in the city were using the water
energy of the Tettye stream.36
It is also important to note that after the monetary reforms of Charles
I Pécs housed one of the newly created ‘chambers’ where coins were
minted and the tax named ‘chamber’s profit’ (lucrum camerae) was col-
lected. Unfortunately, very few documents have survived that prove the
existence of the chamber in Pécs, and it is highly probable that it did not
work continuously in the later Middle Ages.37

6. City administration
The city of Pécs was administered in the Middle Ages by an elected
city council (town magistracy) which consisted of a judge (iudex) and the
aldermen/sworn burghers (iurati cives). In most of the Hungarian towns
and cities the number of the iurati cives was 12. Unfortunately, no docu-
mentary evidence has survived that informs us about the number of the
iurati cives of Pécs. Moreover, we know only three iurati cives by name.
All of them are mentioned in a charter from 1464. It also has to be noted
that, although, medieval Pécs had a strong German community, and it
happened more than one time that the headman of the city was German,
there is no evidence proving that the office of the Bürgermeister (magister
civium) appeared in Pécs, as was the case in many towns of the Kingdom
of Hungary where Germans lived. Eleven judges are known by name from
the period prior to 1526, among them both Germans and Hungarians are 21
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

to be found. 10 charters have survived that were issued by the town mag-
istracy: seven of them were written in Latin and three in German. Four of
these charters are kept in the National Archives of Hungary, Budapest, five
in the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Vienna, and one in the Archivio di
Stato di Firenze. Mediceo avanti il Principato, Florence. The town magis-
tracy used a greater and a lesser seal (sigillum maior and minor).38

III. Conclusion
he urban development of Pécs was primarily determined in the Middle
T Ages by the fact that the city fell under the jurisdiction of the bishop
and the cathedral chapter. Although the ecclesiastical lordship restricted
the city’s autonomy, Pécs became a flourishing town both economically
and culturally. This was mainly due to the fact that relations between the
bishop, the chapter house and the burghers of the city, throughout the
centuries, had been harmonious. As a result of these good relations Pécs
was not only a significant ecclesiastical centre, but was able to become a
town in the economic sense of the word. As such, despite its legal status,
it can be regarded as the economic centre of south-west Hungary. Its
Hungarian merchants and those who belonged to the strong German and
‘Latin’ community of the city traded not only with Hungarian towns, but
with those of Italy and Austria, mainly with Vienna and Venice.
The fact that one of the wealthiest prelates of medieval Hungary resided
in the city and that one of the largest chapter houses of medieval Hungary
functioned here as a place of authentication, led to the situation in which
a properly differentiated and highly developed craft industry emerged in
Pécs. In short: medieval Pécs was not only a centre of outstanding impor-
tantance in the field of church administration, but also was a thriving com-
mercial city with a flourishing craft industry. This is well demonstrated by
the city’s 39 central place points. This means that Pécs occupies the first
place in Category II in Kubinyi’s classification. This is a very prominent
place, proving that Pécs outrivalled in Category II such towns as Bártfa/
Bardejov (33) and Eperjes/Prešov (32) which belonged to the tavernical
towns. Among the archiepiscopal and episcopal sees of Hungary, Pécs, on
the basis of its central place points, occupied the third place.39 It was only
Zagreb (42) and Várad/Oradea (41) which outrivalled Pécs in this group of
towns. Surprisingly enough, Esztergom, where the head of the Hungarian
Catholic Church resided, could gain ‘only’ 38 central place points, thus it
followed Pécs in the hierarchy of medieval Hungarian towns. Last, but not
least, it should be noted that Pécs, with its 39 central place points, occu-
pied the eleventh place in the network of towns of medieval Hungary.
It is equally important to stress that Pécs, even in its outward appearance,
looked very urbanised: it was encircled by town walls made of stone, had
magnificent edifices, and most of its streets were paved with stone, a very
22 rare phenomenon in medieval Hungarian towns. It is also noteworthy that, in
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

contrast with most of the Hungarian episcopal cities, Pécs had a more unified
structure both from the legal and the topographical point of view.
‡

NOTES

1 Antal Bartha (ed.), Magyarország története. El
zmények és magyar történelem 1242-ig [A

History of Hungary. Antecedents and Hungarian History up to 1242] (2 vols., Budapest:
Akadémiai Kiadó, 1984), vol. 1, pp. 199–237; Béla Köpeczi (general ed.) – László Makkai
– András Mócsy – Zoltán Szász – Gábor Barta (eds.), History of Transylvania. Editor of the
English translation Bennett Kovrig. /Boulder, Colorado: Social Science Monographs./.
(3 vols., Highland Lakes, N.J.: Atlantic Research and Publications – New York: Columbia
University Press, 2001–2002), vol. 1, From the Beginnings to 1606, pp. 42–132; Klára
Póczy, Pannóniai városok [The Towns of Province Pannonia] (Budapest: Corvina, 1976);
Radu Ardevan, Viaa municipal în Dacia Roman [The Municipal Life in Roman Dacia]
(Timiĩoara: Mirton, 1998). Hungarian and Romanian archaeologists and historians
disagree with each other about the fate of the Romanized population of the towns of the
provinces of Pannonia and Dacia. While Hungarian scholars deny the survival of the
Romanized urban population, and consequently the continuity between the towns of
Antiquity and those of the Middle Ages, Romanian scholars emphasize the survival of the
Romanized Dacians. Thus they try to create a solid basis for the theory of Daco-Romanian
continuity. In my opinion toponyms provide very simply but remarkably convincing
evidence on this delicate question. With the exception of Savaria and Sirmium, the Latin
names of the towns used in the Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, are not identical. This
fact can be interpreted in only one way: the Romanized population either withdrew to
Italy or perished during the Great Migration of the Peoples. Consequently, topographic
continuity can only be proved between the Roman towns and those of the Middle Ages
in the Carpathian Basin. Cf. István Petrovics, ‘Royal residences and urban development
during the reign of the Anjou kings in Hungary’, Historia Urbana, 5.1 (1997): 39–40.
2 The Hungarian Landtaking in the Carpathian or Middle Danube Basin took place
between 895 and 907 A. D. Gyula Kristó, Magyar honfoglalás – honfoglaló magyarok
[Hungarian Landtaking – Conquering Hungarians] (Budapest: Kossuth, 1996); Idem,
Hungarian History in the Ninth Century (Szeged: Szegedi Középkorász Mķhely, 1996),
pp. 175–203; Pál Engel, The Realm of St Stephen. A History of Medieval Hungary, 895–
1526 (London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2001), pp. 8–27.
3 András Kubinyi, ‘Városi szervezetek a középkori Magyarországon’ [Urban Organizations
in Medieval Hungary], Honismeret, 21.6 (1993): 16–17; Idem, ‘A középkori Magyarország
városfejlĝdése’ [The Urban Development of Medieval Hungary], Rubicon, 4. 8–9 (1993):
17. See also István Petrovics, ‘Foreign Ethnic Groups and Urban Development in the
Medieval Kingdom of Hungary: The Cases of Temesvár/Timiĩoara and Szeged’, Anuarul
Institutului de Cercetri Socio-Umane „Gheorghe incai”, 12 (2009): 199–200.
4 Erik Fügedi, ‘Középkori magyar városprivilégiumok’ [Medieval Hungarian Urban
Privileges], and Idem, ‘Városok kialakulása Magyarországon’ [The Making of Towns in
Hungary], in Idem, Kolduló barátok, polgárok, nemesek [Mendicant Friars, Burghers,
Nobles] (Budapest: Magvetĝ, 1981), pp. 238–335; László Gerevich (ed.), Towns in
Medieval Hungary (Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1990); András Kubinyi, ‘A magyar
várostörténet elsĝ fejezete’ [The First Chapter of the History of Towns in Hungary], in
Csaba Fazekas (ed.), Társadalomtörténeti Tanulmányok: Studia Miskolcinensia [Studies
on Social History: Studia Miskolcinensia] (Miskolc: Bibor, 1996), vol. 2, pp. 36–46.
5 Jenĝ Szķcs, Az utolsó Árpádok [The Last Kings of the Árpád Dynasty] (Budapest:
História, 1993), pp. 223–241; Katalin Szende, ‘Was There a Bourgeoisie in Medieval
Hungary?’, in Balázs Nagy – Marcell Sebĝk (eds.), …The Man of Many Devices, Who 23
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

Wandered Full Many Ways… Festschrift in Honor of János M. Bak (Budapest: Central
European University Press, 1999), p. 446; Engel, The Realm of St Stephen, pp. 111–113.
6 For further details see Erik Fügedi, ‘A befogadó: a középkori magyar királyság’ [Medieval
Hungary as a Welcoming Kingdom], in Fügedi, Kolduló barátok, pp. 398–418; György
Györffy, ‘A székesfehérvári latinok betelepülésének kérdése’ [The Settling of Latin Guests
in Székesfehérvár], in Alán Kralovánszky (ed.), Székesfehérvár évszázadai [Centuries
of Székesfehérvár] (Székesfehérvár: Fejér Megyei Múzeumok Igazgatósága, 1972), vol.
2, pp. 37–44; András Kubinyi, ‘Zur frage der deutschen Siedlungen im mittleren Teil
des Königreichs Ungarn (1200–1541)’, Vorträge und Forschungen, 18 (1975): 527–566;
György Székely, ‘A székesfehérvári latinok és vallonok a középkori Magyarországon’
[The Latins and Walloons of Székesfehérvár in Medieval Hungary], in Kralovánsky
(ed.), Székesfehérvár évszázadai, vol. 2, pp. 45–72; István Petrovics, ‘A korai magyar
városfejlĝdés és az idegen jog’ [Early Hungarian Urban Development and Foreign
Law], in László Mihály Alföldy et al. (ed.), Régi és új peregrináció, magyarok külföldön,
külföldiek Magyarországon [Old and New Peregrination, Hungarians Abroad, Foreigners
in Hungary]. Papers of the Third International Congress on Hungarian Studies. (Szeged:
Nemzetközi Magyar Filológiai Társaság – Scriptum, 1993), pp. 267–271; Gyula Kristó
(ed. in chief) – Ferenc Makk – Pál Engel (eds.), Korai magyar történeti lexikon (9–14.
század) [Early Hungarian Historical Lexicon. Ninth to Fourteenth Centuries) (Budapest:
Akadémiai Kiadó, 1994) (henceforth: KMTL), entries: ‘vallonok’, ‘olaszok’, ‘németek’
[Valloons, Italians, Germans]; István Petrovics, ‘The Fading Glory of a Former Royal
Seat: The Case of Medieval Temesvár’, in Nagy – Sebĝk (eds.), …The Man of Many
Devices, pp. 527–528; Engel, The Realm of St Stephen, p. 69; István Petrovics, ‘Foreign
Ethnic Groups in the Towns of Southern Hungary in the Middle Ages’, in Derek Keene
– Balázs Nagy – Katalin Szende (eds.), Segregation – Integration – Assimilation. Religious
and Ethnic Groups in the Medieval Towns of Central and Eastern Europe. /Historical
Urban Studies Series./ (Ashgate, 2009), pp. 67–88.
8 Petrovics, ‘The Fading Glory of a Former Royal Seat’, p. 528; KMTL, entry: ‘polgár’
[burgher], p. 551.
9 Fügedi, ‘Középkori magyar városprivilégiumok’, pp. 238–310; Szķcs, Az utolsó Árpádok,
pp. 50–61, 223–276; Petrovics, ‘A korai magyar városfejlĝdés’, pp. 267–271. See also
Petrovics, ‘Foreign Ethnic Groups in the Towns’, p. 72.
10 Petrovics, ‘The Fading Glory of a Former Royal Seat’, p. 529; Engel, The Realm of St
Stephen, pp. 244–266.
11 István Petrovics, ‘Urban Development during the Reign of King Matthias: The Cases of
Szeged and Debrecen’, in Attila Bárány – Attila Györkös (eds.), Matthias and his Legacy.
Cultural and Political Encounters between East and West (Debrecen: Department of
History, University of Debrecen, 2009), p. 215.
12 Engel, The Realm of St. Stephen, pp. 253–255, 262–264; András Kubinyi, ‘„Szabad
királyi város” – „királyi szabad város”?’ [Free Royal Town – Royal Free Town?], Urbs.
Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv, 1 (2006): 51–61; Petrovics, ‘Urban Development during
the Reign of King Matthias’, pp. 215–216.
13 “Est autem civitas, domorum et vicorum pluralitas, moeniis, et praesidiis circumcincta
necessariis, ad bene, honesteque vivendum privilegiata.” In János M. Bak – Péter Banyó
– Martyn Rady – Charles Schlacks, Jr. (edit. and trans.), The Customary Law of the
Renowned Kingdom of Hungary: A Work in Three Parts. Rendered by Stephen Werb
czy.
(The Tripartitum) (Budapest: Idyllwild CA – Central European University, 2005) /The
Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, 5./, p. 388. (henceforth: Werbĝczy, The
Tripartitum).
14 Werbĝczy, The Tripartitum, pp. 388–389.
24
 Cities on the Plain, Cities of the Hills

15 For a good summary of the question see: Richard Hodges, Dark Age Economics. The
Origins of Towns and Trade AD 600–1000 (London: Duckworth, 1989²), pp. 20–25.
16 Erik Fügedi, for instance, adapted Le Goff’s method to Hungarian circumstances. Let it
suffice here to mention briefly that Le Goff assumed that the more mendicant convents
a town had, the more developed it was.
17 Dietrich Denecke, ‘Research in German Urban Historical Geography,’ in Dietrich
Denecke – Garett Shaw (eds.), Urban Historical Geography. Recent Progress in Britain
and Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988) /Cambridge Studies
in Historical Geography./, pp. 24–33, especially pp. 30–31; Harold Carter, ‘The
Development of Urban Centrality in England and Wales,’ in Denecke – Shaw, Urban
Historical Geography, pp. 191–211. See also Harold Carter, An Introduction to Urban
Historical Geography (London: Edward Arnold, 1983), pp. 85–89.
18 András Kubinyi, Városfejl
dés és vásárhálózat a középkori Alföldön és az Alföld szélén
[Urban Development and the Network of Markets on the Great Hungarian Plain and
on its Fringes in the Middle Ages] (Szeged: Csongrád Megyei Levéltár, 2000), pp. 7–94;
Idem, ‘Városhálózat a késĝ középkori Kárpát-medencében’ [The Network of Towns in the
Carpathian Basin in the Late Middle Ages], in Enikĝ Csukovits – Tünde Lengyel (eds.),
Bártfától Pozsonyig. Városok a 13–17. században [From Bardejov as far as Bratislava.
Towns in the Thirteenth – Seventeenth Centuries] (Budapest: MTA Történettudományi
Intézet, 2005), pp. 17–31. See also Szende, ‘Was there a bourgeoisie’, pp. 446–448.
19 Kubinyi determined these categories on the basis of a sixteenth century Polish
classification of towns.
20 Kubinyi, Városfejl
dés és vásárhálózat, pp. 59–101; Kubinyi, ‘Városhálózat a késĝ
középkori Kárpát-medencében’, p. 30. See also Petrovics, ‘Urban development during
the Reign of King Matthias’, pp. 216–217.
21 39 points, see above Category II.
22 István Petrovics, ‘Püspöki székhely és város: Pécs a középkorban’ [An Episcopal See
and City: Pécs in the Middle Ages], in Melinda Kindl – Zoltán Erdĝs (eds.), Pécs az
egyháztörténet tükrében [Pécs in the Mirror of Church History] (Pécs: Molnár Nyomda és
Kiadó, 2010), p. 80.
23 To give a Romanian example: in 2007 it was Sibiu (Hermannstadt, Nagyszeben), which,
together with Luxembourg City, was the European capital of culture.
24 István Petrovics, ‘Medieval Pécs and the Monetary Reforms of Charles I’, in István
Petrovics – Sándor László Tóth – Eleanor Congdon (eds.), “In my Spirit and Thought I
Remained a European of Hungarian Origin.” Medieval Historical Studies in Memory of
Zoltan J. Kosztolnyik (Szeged: JATEPress, 2010), pp. 123–124.
25 For the medieval history of the Diocese of Pécs see: Tamás Fedeles – Gábor Sarbak
– József Sümegi (eds.), A pécsi egyházmegye története I. A középkor évszázadai (1009–
1543) [A History of the Diocese of Pécs. Vol. 1. The Centuries of the Middle Ages (1009–
1543)] (Pécs: Pécsi Egyházmegye, 2009) (henceforth: PET).
26 Concerning the university, which actually had only two faculties (those of law and arts),
it should be pointed out that in Pécs an excellent chapter school had existed already
before the foundation of the studium generale, and the cathedral chapter provided an
adequate ‘library background’ for the university. It is also important to note that Pécs,
following from its geographical location, fitted well into the south and south-western
oriented foreign policy of King Louis I. For the university of Pécs see: Astrik L. Gabriel,
The Mediaeval Universities of Pécs and Pozsony. Commemoration of the 500th and 600th
Anniversary of their Foundation 1367–1467–1967 (Indiana and Frankfurt am Main:
Mediaeval Institute – University of Notre Dame, 1969); István Petrovics, ‘A középkori
pécsi egyetem és alapítója’ [The Medieval University of Pécs and its Founder], Aetas, 20.4 25
 Colloquia, Volume XVIII, 2011

(2005): 29–39. With further bibliographical items: Mária G. Sándor, ‘A pécsi püspökvár
középkori épületei és épületmaradványai. A középkori egyetem épülete’ [Medieval Edifices
and Remnants of Medieval Edifices in the Bishop’s Castle of Pécs. The Edifice of the
Medieval University of Pécs], in Kálmán Szijártó – Mária G. Sándor (eds.), Die Bischofsburg
zu Pécs. Archäologie und Bauforschung. A pécsi püspökvár. Régészet és épületkutatás
ICOMOS Hefte des Deutchen Nationalcomitees XXII (München: ICOMOS, 1999), pp. 38–
47; Tamás Fedeles, ‘Studium Generale Quinqueecclesiense’, in PET, pp. 557–572. For
bishops William of Coppenbach and Valentine of Alsán see: István Petrovics, ‘Bishops
William of Coppenbach and Valentine of Alsán as diplomats’, in Zoltán Kordé – István
Petrovics (eds.), Diplomacy in the Countries of the Angevin Dynasty in the Thirteenth-
Fourteenth Centuries. Papers of the International Conference Held in Szeged – Visegrád
– Budapest between 13–16 September 2007 (Roma – Szeged, 2010), pp. 303–311.
27 This quarter, the medieval káptalani város, was bordered by the modern streets: Káptalan
– Hunyadi – Janus Pannonius, and the main square of modern Pécs, the Széchenyi square.
28 Hungarian National Archives. Diplomatic Photo Collection, nr. 260135. See also Tamás
Fedeles, ‘Drakwlyahaza’ [The House of Drakula], in Tibor Almási – Éva Révész – György
Szabados (eds.), „Fons, skepsis, lex.” Ünnepi tanulmányok a 70 esztend
s Makk Ferenc
tiszteletére [“Fons, skepsis, lex.” Essays in Honour of Ferenc Makk on the Occasion of
his 70th Birthday] (Szeged: Opitz, 2010), pp. 107–114.
29 For the medieval streets see: István Petrovics, ‘A középkori Pécs utcái’ [The Streets
of Medieval Pécs], in Monika Pilkhoffer – József Vonyó (eds.), A 2001–2004 között
megrendezett „El
adások Pécs történetéb
l” cím konferenciák válogatott el
adásai
[Selected Papers of the Conferences Held between 2001–2004 on the History of the City
of Pécs] /Tanulmányok Pécs történetébĝl 18./ (Pécs: Pécs Története Alapítvány, 2006),
pp. 43–60. See also: Tamás Fedeles, ‘„Eztán Pécs tķnik szemünkbe.” A város középkori
históriája 1009–1526 [“Then We Catch Sight of Pécs.” The Medieval History of the City
1009–1526] (Pécs: Pro Pannonia Kiadói Alapítvány, 2011), pp. 41–76.
30 The city of Pécs fell to the Ottomans in 1543.
31 Janus Pannonius, Bishop of Pécs (1459–1472), was the first Hungarian poet known by
name, and the only significant poet of the Renaissance in the Kingdom of Hungary. He
frequently acted as a diplomat.
32 Petrovics, ‘Foreign Ethnic Groups’, pp. 73–75.
33 Petrovics, ‘A középkori Pécs polgárai’, p. 181.
34 Fedeles, „Eztán Pécs tķnik szemünkbe,” pp. 136–138.
35 István Petrovics, ‘Városi elit a középkori Dél-Magyarországon. Pécs, Szeged és Temesvár
esete’ [Urban Elite in Southern Hungary in the Middle Ages. The Cases of Pécs, Szeged
and Temesvár], Urbs. Magyar Várostörténeti Évkönyv, 3 (2008): 55.
36 Petrovics, ‘Városi elit a középkori Dél-Magyarországon’, pp. 45–48; Idem, ‘A középkori
Pécs polgárai’, pp. 168–186; Idem, ‘Bastogne-i Henrik pécsi polgár és végrendelete’
[Henry of Bastogne, Citizen of Pécs and his Testament], Pécsi Szemle, 12.4 (2009): 2–9;
Fedeles, „Eztán Pécs tķnik szemünkbe”, pp. 107–130.
37 Petrovics, ‘The Monetary Reforms’, pp. 130–134.
38 Petrovics, ‘Városi elit’, pp. 53, 62; István Petrovics, ‘Közjegyzĝk a középkori Pécsen:
Pozsegavári Márton fia Balázs’ [Public Notaries in Medieval Pécs: Blase, Son of Martin of
Pozsegavár]. Forthcoming.
39 In the Late Middle Ages the church organization of Hungary (without Croatia and
Dalmatia) consisted of two archbishoprics and twelve bishoprics, which formed two
provinces. Since the archbishopric of Kalocsa and the bishopric of Szerém (Srem) each
26 had two sees, there were, in fact, altogether 16 (archi)episcopal cities in Hungary.