Györ

Györ 

a city in northwestern Hungary, at the confluence of the Raba River and a branch of the Danube. Administrative center of the megye (county) of Györ-Sopron. Population, 87,000 (1970). Major railroad junction and river port; third largest industrial center of the country (after Budapest and Miskolc). Industry includes metalworking (the Wilhelm Pieck Works, which produces railroad cars and machines and has about 10,000 employees, as well as a machine-tool plant), textiles (cotton, wool, and linen), and food-processing (vegetable oil, flour, alcoholic beverages, and meat). There is production of lacquers, paint, artificial leather, furniture, and construction materials. There is a pedagogical institute and a theater.

The center of Györ has a hill with a church (construction was begun in the second half of the 12th century; Hédervary’s Gothic chapel dates from the early 15th century, and baroque interior, from the 17th and 18th centuries: frescoes by F. A. Maulbertsch, 1772-81; and the classical facade, 1823). Around the hill are irregular blocks from the Middle Ages, beyond which is the more regular construction of the 19th and 20th centuries. Among Györ’s architectural monuments are the remains of the fortress walls (1564-75; architect P. Ferrabosco), the bishop’s palace (16th century), the baroque churches of St. Ignatius (1635-41; paintings by P. Troger, 1744-47) and the Carmelites (1721-25; architect M. A. Wittwer), and numerous houses from the 17th and 18th centuries, with ground-level arched galleries and bay windows. The J. Xantus Museum has collections of archaeology and folk art.

REFERENCES

Borbiró, V., and Is. Vallo. Györ városépitéstörténete. Budapest, 1956.
Jenei, F. Régi Györi házak. Budapest, 1959.