sopron

Sopron is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near the Lake Fertő.

When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a city called Scarbantia stood here. Its forum was located where the main square of Sopron can be found today. During the Migration Period, Scarbantia was believed to be deserted. By the time Hungarians arrived in the area, it was in ruins.

In 1676, Sopron was destroyed by a fire. The modern-day city was born in the next few decades, when Baroque buildings were built to replace the destroyed medieval ones. Sopron became the seat of the comitatus Sopron.

The town was the seat of the Ödenburg comitat near 1850. After the compromise of 1867 and until 1918, the city (known with the dual bilingual name of Sopron-Ödenburg) was part of the Habsburg-ruled Kingdom of Hungary. Today, Sopron’s economy immensely benefits from the European Union. Having been a city close to nowhere, that is, to the Iron Curtain, Sopron now has re-established full trade relations to nearby Austria.

During the Socialist era, the government tried to turn Sopron into an industrial city, but much of the medieval town center remains, allowing the city to remain an attractive site for tourists.

Sopron is a significant wine producing region, one of the few in Hungary to make both red and white wines.

Sopron suffered greatly during World War II, it was bombed several times.