Сопрон: История и судьба города на границе Австрии и Венгрии

Place in Western Transdanubia, Hungary
the city

Sopron (; Ödenburg, ) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near Lake Neusiedl/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. When Hungarians arrived in the area, the city was in ruins. From the 9th to the 11th centuries, Hungarians strengthened the old Roman city walls and built a castle. The city was named in Hungarian after a castle steward named Suprun. In 1153, it was mentioned as an important city. In 1273, King Otakar II of Bohemia occupied the castle. Even though he took the children of Sopron's nobility with him as hostages, the city opened its gates when the armies of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary arrived. Ladislaus rewarded Sopron by elevating it to the rank of free royal town.

During the Ottoman occupation of Hungary, the Ottoman Turks ravaged the city in 1529, but did not occupy it. Many Hungarians fled from the occupied areas to Sopron, and the city's importance grew. While the Ottomans occupied most of Central Europe, the region north of Lake Balaton remained in the Kingdom of Hungary (1538–1867) (captaincy between Balaton and Drava). In 1676, Sopron was destroyed by a fire. The modern city was born over 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.

Following the breakup of the Austro Hungarian Empire, ethnic Germans inhabited parts of four western Hungarian counties: Pozsony (Pressburg in German; Bratislava in Czech/Slovak), Vas (Eisenburg), Sopron (Ödenburg) and Moson (Wieselburg). The German inhabited parts of those counties were initially awarded to Austria in the Treaty of Saint Germain en Laye (1919). After local unrest and Italian diplomatic mediation in the Venice Protocol, Sopron's status as part of Hungary (along with that of the surrounding eight villages) was decided by a controversial, local plebiscite held on December 14, 1921, with 65% voting for Hungary. Since then Sopron has been called Civitas Fidelissima ("The Most Loyal Town", A Leghűségesebb Város), and the anniversary of the plebiscite is a city holiday. However, the western parts of Vas, Sopron and Moson counties joined Austria and now form the Austrian federal state of Burgenland, and Pressburg/Pozsony was awarded to Czechoslovakia. Sopron suffered greatly during World War II and was bombed several times. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on April 1, 1945. The city of Sopron and the village of Sopronbánfalva began to stretch towards each other at the beginning of the 20th century, they unified in 1950 and since the areas have merged.

Sopron is a significant wine producing region, one of the few in Hungary to make both red and white wines. Grapes include Kékfrankos for red wine and Traminer (Gewürztraminer) for white wine. In climate it is similar to the neighbouring Burgenland wine region in Austria, and several winemakers make wine in both countries. Blue Frankish (= Kékfrankos, Blaufränkisch), Traminer, and Green Veltliner (= Zöld Veltelini, Grüner Veltliner) are well known Sopron wines. Sopron's Blue Frankish and Pinot Noir wines are particularly prized. The group of ethnic German wine growers in the Sopron area in the Habsburg Monarchy were the so called Ponzichter.

In 1910, Sopron had 33,931 inhabitants (51% German, 44.3% Hungarian, 4.7% other). Religions: 64.1% Roman Catholic, 27.8% Lutheran, 6.6% Jewish, 1.2% Calvinist, 0.3% other. In 2001, the city had 56,125 inhabitants (92.8% Hungarian, 3.5% German, 3.7% other). Religions: 69% Roman Catholic, 7% Lutheran, 3% Calvinist, 8.1% Atheist, 11.9% no answer, 1% other.

The architecture of the old section of town reflects its long history; walls and foundations from the Roman Empire are still common, together with a wealth of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque structures, often artistically decorated, showing centuries of stability and prosperity. There is an old synagogue and other remains from the town's former Jewish community, which was expelled in the 16th century. On Daloshegy, there is a 165 metre tall FM /TV broadcasting tower, nicknamed "Rakéta" (Hungarian for rocket).

The women's basketball team Sopron Basket is one of the most successful Hungarian basketball team in the history with 15 National titles and they success in Europe, in 2022 they won EuroLeague. MFC Sopron was a football team based in Sopron. The successor of the club is Soproni VSE.