Sopron

Sopron

Sopron (shôˈprôn), Ger. Ödenburg, city (1991 est. pop. 55,140), NW Hungary, near the Austrian border. It is a tourism and commercial center with fruit-preserving, sugar-refining, and cotton textile industries. Originally a Celtic settlement called Scarabantia, it became a military outpost under the Romans. Hungarians settling the area in the 10th and 11th cent. made the city an important fortress. Sopron was the site of the coronation of King (later emperor) Ferdinand III of Hungary and Bohemia in 1625 and a meeting place of the Hungarian Parliament in 1681. Part of the Burgenland, it was transferred to Austria after World War I but was returned to Hungary after a plebiscite (1921). Sopron is one of the oldest cultural centers in Hungary; it has a university, three 13th-century churches, and a 15th-century palace. Franz Liszt was born at nearby Dobojan.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia™ Copyright © 2022, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Sopron

 

a city in Hungary. Situated on the Ikva River (Danube basin), in the megye (county) of Győr-Sopron. Population, 53,000 (1976). Sopron is a railroad junction. Its industrial enterprises manufacture textiles, garments, metal products, wine, and beer. The city has a polytechnic institute.

The city’s noteworthy Gothic structures include a Benedictine church (13th-first quarter of the 14th century, reconstructed c. 1490) and a convent with its famous Chapter Hall (first half of the 14th century) and the churches of St. Mihály (13th-15th centuries) and St. György (14th century, reconstructed in the baroque style 1682–1781). The city tower (completed 1681) and various Gothic, Renaissance, and baroque houses are also of interest. The Liszt Ferenc Museum houses archaeological remains and works of the fine arts, folk art, and applied arts.

REFERENCE

Magyarország müemléki topográfiája, vol. 2. Part 1: “Sopron és környéke müemlékei”. Budapest, 1956.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.