Taking a chance on Pecs - and winning

The main square in the Hungarian city of Pecs showcasing an Ottoman 
mosque converted to a church. Flowers add a color accent.
The main square in the Hungarian city of Pecs showcasing an Ottoman mosque converted to a church. Flowers add a color accent.

— It requires a certain leap of faith to schedule three days of a European vacation in a city you’ve barely heard of.

Happily, such a blithe approach rewarded wife Marcia and me last month when we ventured to Pecs, a city of 165,000 in southwestern Hungary.

We didn’t target Pecs entirely at random. In Michelin’s Hungary, it’s the only sizable city other than Budapest with the guidebook’s top three-star rating. Lonely Planet’s Hungary lauds it as one of that nation’s “most pleasant and interesting cities ... blessed with a mild climate, an illustrious past and a number of fine museums and monuments.”

We’d been to Budapest three times before and enjoyed the Hungarian capital, but thrice seemed enough. So we picked Pecs (following a week on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus) after scrubbing a long-planned trip toSyria due to the worsening violence and repression there. From Vienna, where we would have flown to Damascus, it was an easy 240-mile drive south to Pecs.

Our arrival late on a Sunday afternoon began with a joke on us: Hotel Millennium, recently booked via the Expedia web site, was scaffolded and locked. A sign on the door (in Hungarian, English and German) announced that it was closed for renovation.

Briefly befuddled, we puttered along a thoroughfare and spotted the facade of Boutique Hotel Sopianae. We were lodged within strolling distance of most local attractions after taking a comfortable Sopianae room for about $160 a night including breakfast (and a bedside Gideon Bible in Hungarian, which looks to English speakers like a set of Scrabble letters scattered at random).

Among our assorted Pecs stops, in and near a town center amply graced with flower beds and pedestrian-only streets, the following provided the most fun and fascination. Reflecting the Schnedlers’ enthusiasm for the pleasures of the table, the last three are restaurants:

Kossuth Square. Just three blocks from our hotel, this pedestrian expanse is the site of Pecs’ synagogue, a handsome structure built in the Romantic style in 1869. It serves as a reminder that 2,700 of the city’s Jews were deported to Nazi death camps in May 1944. Today’s local Jewish community numbers about 150.

Szechenyi Square. We did a half-dozen strolls around this lovely square bordered by baroque buildings. Evoking the 150 years of Turkish occupation starting in 1543, its north end boasts the imposing former Mosque of Pasha Gazi Kassim, now a parish church. Our photographer’s eyes were drawn at the square’s south end to the lustrous glaze of Zsolnay Fountain’s four bulls’ heads, a particularly jaunty specimen of the outdoor art dressing up Pecs.

St. Peter’s Cathedral. Europe is so prolifically blessed with cathedrals that seasonedtravelers to the continent may be inclined to shrug at the sight of yet another set of spires and flying buttresses. But the ornate interior of Pecs’ four-towered basilica merited a visit for its array of frescoes by 19th-century artists Bertalan Szekely and Karoly Lotz, as well as gorgeous friezes over the stairways leading down to the crypt.

Csontvary Museum. We’d never heard of Tivador Kosztka Csontvary. But theLonely Planet guide’s comparison of him with Vincent van Gogh for his artistic genius and his tormented personal life led us to the five-room museum of the Hungarian artist’s paintings from a century ago. We were dazzled by his landscapes and biblical scenes, some of which evinced a touch of surrealism.

Erzsebet Schaar “Street” sculptures. Even eerier than Csontvary’s work was the nearby Erzsebet Schaarexhibition hall of “Street” sculptures. Done in white, the dimly lighted procession of life-size figures by an artist who died in 1975 aimed to express her deep feelings about the relationship between mankind and our surrounding space.

Arkad. The U.S.-style consumerism that has swept Hungary in the 22 years since communist rule ended was manifest in the two-story Arkad Shopping Centre. Along with its 125 international and regional retailers, Arkad has a food court complete with a Burger King and a Pizza Hut to tempt homesick Americans. On our mid-April visit, a secular Easter display featuring a dozen live rabbits was set up in the middle of the mall.

Afium. Tucked in a basement and furnished with a motley assortment of tables and chairs reminiscent of Antiques Roadshow rejects, Afium dished up hearty and flavorful main courses of venison with berry sauce for Marcia and a pork cutlet topped with (artery alert!) chicken livers for me. We drank a chardonnay from the Villany wine region south of Pecs. As with all the restaurants where we ate in Hungary, the menu listed English translations of the food. And the server spoke English.

Aranykacsa. We were theonly customers for dinner in this stylish place known for its duck dishes. Our shared first course of duck gizzard confit arrived as a hefty whole gizzard served with roasted yellow peppers. As well as something completely different, it was pretty darned good. So were my roasted duck thigh with cabbage and beets and Marcia’s grilled duck breast with bolete mushrooms. A Villany pinot noir paired well with the fowl.

Minaret. Near the ruins of the 16th-century Pasha Memi Baths, we basked in sunshine for a lunch in Minaret’s flower-garnished garden.Our tasty chicken paprikash came with a surprise ingredient - scrambled eggs mixed with the spaetzle noodles. The spelling of the Szalon beer I drank exemplified the extra “z” - or maybe several of them - that would be required for a proper Scrabble match in Hungarian.

Travel, Pages 50 on 05/29/2011

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