Roman catacombs, Ottoman mosques, and Zsolnay tiles
Pécs is southern Hungary's cultural capital — a UNESCO-listed city of Roman catacombs, intact Ottoman mosques (converted to churches after reconquest), and the Zsolnay Porcelain Factory whose iridescent eosin-glazed tiles decorate buildings across the Austro-Hungarian world. The Sophiana Early Christian Necropolis beneath the city is one of the most important late-Roman burial sites in Europe, and the university — founded 1367 — is the oldest in Hungary.
Pécs was the Roman city of Sopianae, capital of the province of Pannonia Valeria and an important early Christian centre — the 4th-century painted tombs beneath the city (the Sopianae burial chambers) are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Ottomans ruled from 1543 to 1686, leaving behind the Gazi Kasim Mosque — the largest Ottoman-era building in Hungary, now a Catholic church. After Austrian reconquest the city became a major centre of ceramics under the Zsolnay family, whose factory (founded 1853) exported tiles to Vienna, Budapest, and Paris.