PECS

German Fnfkirchen, medieval Latin Quinque Ecclesiae (Five Churches), capital of Baranya megye (county), southwestern Hungary. It lies at the southern foot of the wooded Mecsek Mountains, 135 miles (220 km) south-southwest of Budapest. It is one of several city-county administrative units in Hungary. The site was occupied by the Roman town of Sopianae, the capital of the province of Southern Pannonia, which succeeded an Illyrian and Celtic settlement. In 1009 Stephen I, the first king of Hungary, made the town a bishopric. The name Pcs first appeared in the late 11th century. The town has a large main square with a well-preserved mosque (Ghazi Kassim Pasha), which is now a Roman Catholic church. The town's cathedral, which was founded in 1009 on the site of an old Roman church, was extensively renovated and restored in the 1960s. Pcs is an old-established trade and handicrafts town, and during the 14th and 15th centuries it was also a great centre of humanist studies. It was occupied by the Turks from 1543 to 1686. The earliest university in Hungary, the University of Pcs, founded in 1367 by Louis I, was abolished by the Turks but was renamed Janus Pannonius University of Pcs and reopened in 1922. The Medical University of Pcs (1951) is also situated in the town. In the 18th century, German immigrant miners came to work the local coal seams, and there remains in Pcs one of the few German minorities in Hungary. In 1780 the city received a free royal charter. The PcsKoml coalfield, which supplies coking coal to Dunajvros, formed the basis for the rapid development of the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. Pcs's industries include engineering, furniture, tobacco, china, brewing, and leatherworking. The Zsolnay factory, producing ceramic ware (majolica), is one of the best-known sites in Pcs. In the vicinity are extensive vineyards dating from Roman times. The town has good road and rail connections with Dunajvros, Budapest, and other cities. The marked rise in Pcs' population in the 20th century was the result of an influx of Hungarian peasants from the countryside. Pop. (1990 prelim.) 170,119.