Hungary's most Austrian city — Roman walls, a Gothic fire tower, and Kékfrankos wine from Iron Curtain vineyards
Sopron is Hungary's most westerly city and its most Central European in character — a compact medieval old town of Gothic churches, baroque merchant houses, and 2,000-year-old Roman walls on the Austrian border. Known as 'the most loyal city' (Civitas Fidelissima) because its citizens voted to remain part of Hungary rather than Austria in the 1921 plebiscite, Sopron is also famous as the site of the first breach in the Iron Curtain in 1989 — when Hungary opened its border gate and 600 East Germans crossed to the West at the Pan-European Picnic, beginning the chain of events that led to the fa…
Sopron was a significant Roman settlement (Scarabantia) before becoming part of the medieval Hungarian kingdom. The Habsburgs conquered it in 1622 and it spent long periods under Austrian administration, leaving it with a distinctly Austrian street grid and baroque sensibility. The 1921 plebiscite was a rare democratic moment after World War I — Sopron's citizens voted 65% to stay in Hungary rather than join Austria, against the economic incentive to join the wealthier state. The Pan-European Picnic of August 19, 1989 at Sopronpuszta began when organizers opened the border gate 'for a few hou…