Pécs City Guide | February 2016 | Issue 09

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PCGPécs City Guide / February 2016 / Issue 09

INSIDE:Charity rides with the mafia, local chili round-up, events and much more

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2 Pécs City Guide February 2016 pecscityguide.com

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Co

ntents & C

o.

HI, It’s been quite a long time since the last issue of Pécs City Guide and there are a lot of changes. First of all, from now on the magazine will have 24 pages. This is almost as thick as a magazine should be. This also means that we do have enough space to have real feature arti-

cles on a regular basis. Our first attempt is about a new kind of charity initiative in Pécs that makes use of commu-nity cooking and biking (see p8).

But the number of pages is not the only thing the changed: I think you already realized that we introduce a mostly new lay-out. Not everything is final, we will need a couple of issues to smooth the edges but it already enables us to fit even more con-tent on one page. We hope you will like the new design.

Any feedback is really appre-ciated. Feel free to contact us at: i n f o @ p e c s c i t y g u i d e . c o m . Thanks for your attention, and see you next month.

Ervin Gűth, editor

Pécs City Guide February 2016 | Issue 09The free, insert magazine of Dunántúli Napló in English. Editor-in-chief/Publisher: László Póré Managing editor: Ervin Gűth Contributor: László Nógrádi Published by Mediaworks Regionális Kiadó Kft. Baranya Megyei Irodája Sales manager: Gyöngyi Nagy Phone: +36 72 505 060, +36 30 9971 006 E-mail: [email protected] Printed at Paletta Press Nyomda Kft. 2092 Budakeszi, Szőlőskert u. 19. ISSN 08659133

Contents04

IN BRIEFCsontváry is back, Un-der the bridge, Cam-

pus developement pro-gram, Magasház, Expats

08FEATURES

Biking for charity, Top 5 events this spring

12DRINK & DINEChili round-up,

STB, Mecseki Itóka, Jovánczai, Coffee tour

18TO DO

Winter’s Tale, Mostly Harmless, Beauty and advertising, Blahalui-siana, Four sculptors

22ESSENTIALS

Concrete gardens

10

This issue’s cover photo was taken at Szentágothai Research Centre (If-

júság str). The colourful, shiny surface coats the main auditorium called ‘Peb-

ble’. Architects of the building: Bálint Bachmann, Zoltán Bachman, Ákos Hutter, Csaba Rohoska, Ágnes Bor-sos, Tamás Molnár, Klaudia Szösz.

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04


In B

rief

A recent decision by the Hungarian goverment enables the University of Pécs to start a campus development program. In the upcoming four years HUF 24 billion (~ EUR 78 million) will be spent on property and infrastructure de-velopment. This money will make it pos-sible to renovate several venues, and there is a plan for a new building too.

The program was first announced by prime minister Viktor Orbán during his visit in Pécs last spring.

University officials confirmed that the key goal of these developments is to double the number of international stu-dents in Pécs. Currently 2500 students from abroad choose University of Pécs every year.

HUF 24 BILLION CAMPUS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

One of the most popular ex-hibitions of Pécs returns af-ter being a great success in Budapest.

Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka is con-sidered to be one of the most re-markeble Hungarian avant-garde artists of the 19-20th century. There is only one permanent exhibition that honors the painter, and this unique spectacle found its home in Pécs in the 1970s. Ever since it is a real tourist magnet.

Last year, 37 of Csontváry’s works - some of them monumental - were lent to Honvéd Főparancsnokság in Budapest. The temporary exhibition with 73 paintings attracted about 115,000 visitors in 8 months.

Now, his works are heading back to Pécs and visitors can see them at their usual location in Janus Panno-nius street from the end of February.

The eccentric artist’s greatest works were born between 1903 and 1907. Inspite the fact that the painter had exhibitions during his lifetime in Paris and Western Europe, his talent was only recognized in Hungary af-ter his death in 1919. (Illustration: Self portrait by Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka - around 1900)

CSONTVÁRYEXHIBITIONREOPENS

This is not the start of a joke but a real situation in Pécs. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificient, King Louis I of Hungary, and op-art painter Victor Vasarely have been painted in bubblehead style on pillars of the bridge at Siklósi way. The three personalities have one in com-mon, they all influenced the history of Pécs in a significant way.

These fairly new paintings are not the first pieces of the Pécs 2010 Associa-tion: the black and white portraits next to the Magasház was their project too. Since demolition should start soon (see p6) they had to look for new surfaces. The association is determined to make even more dull street objects more at-tractive by decorating them.

THE KING,THE SULTAN, AND THE PAINTER MEET UNDER THE BRIDGE

COLOURFUL CITY

MONEY INJECTION

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We could do this interview in Hun-garian, right?I do speak Hungarian since I grew up in a bilingual environment. At home we only spoke Hungarian but in kindergar-ten and school German became my first language. I read in Hungarian slowly and the conversation wouldn’t be as flu-ent as in German.Do you have communication diffi-coulties in Pécs?I’m open minded, I like to talk to people, and our globalized world makes us com-municate in any way possible. Sometimes even by showing instead of words but this is usually not necessary here.What brought you here?I majored in cultural sciences and I had a hard time finding a job in this field in Germany. As I saw the job listing of the Institute for International Cultural Re-lations (ifa) I knew I had to apply, since it felt like it was written for me. I have to use my knowledge of Hungarian and German culture, I have to work with youth, and organize.

What do you do exactly?I’m a cultural manager at Lenau Haus that is a cultural organization of the Ger-man minorities in Hungary. We organ-ize events, but my big mission here is to touch up the pr of the institution and to connect with young Hungarian-Ger-mans. We created TreffPont that is a casual meeting place to practice Ger-man. We have table games, consoles etc. We have German movie screenings too.How well do you know the city?I think I get along well, I’ve been liv-ing here for more than one and a half year now. I don’t have a systematic ap-proach, I like to roam around town. I love walking in small streets and Pécs has plenty of them. I always find something new and interesting. What will you miss when you leave Pécs?Before I came here the word ‘city’ meant Hamburg or Berlin to me. Pécs gave me a different definition for this word. A small city that never gets boring.

Our first interviewee in this all new series has Hungarian roots but comes from Hamburg, Germany. Sandra György promotes cross cultural communication in Pécs since June 2014.

EXPATS IN PÉCS: SANDRA’S MISSION IS TO PROMOTE GERMAN CULTURE

In B

rief

A year passed again and we can’t say anymore that noth-ing has happened in the case of the Magasház. But the longest running gag of Pécs is still missing the final pun.

No doubt, fences are quite en vogue in Hungary these days. The latest fantastic installation can be admired around Magasház, that is accompanied by a new walkway and a small detour. These should be considered as sure signs that the demolition of the building starts soon. (Sorry people, no building im-plosion planned...)

To make the tallest problem of the ctiy vanish the project received more than HUF 1 billion from the government. That said there is one catch that should worry local pol-iticians: works must be finished in 2016.

Actually, there are still technical difficulties and the works have been postponed until March, which en-courages us to have some doubt in the success of the project. If you don’t have any doubt in demolition than this is the right time to take some last pics of Eastern Europe’s tallest uninhabited building.

AND YES, IT’S STILL STANDING...

NEW SERIES

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Feat

ure CHARITY RIDES

WITH THE MAFIAProfessional helpers and or-ganizers say it’s not an easy task to get people involved in charity actions nowadays. Young Hungarians tend to be more interested in exciting, new forms of charity, and this is something that Budapest Bike Maffia gets right since 2011. A couple of months ago Pécs Bike Maffia has been started, they organized several events and we can only hope that they will be as successful as the biking godfathers in the capitol.

The head of Pécs Volunteer Center, Éva Knyihár has a decade long experi-ence in helping local grass-root organi-zations. I meet her at their headquarters in a cosy, relaxed park-like environment at Szent István square. Éva explains that they are continuously looking for best practices in the non-profit sector and met the concept of Budapest Bike Maffia (BBM) some months ago. They contacted Zoltán Havasi, inventor and leader of the association in Budapest to learn more about their experienc-es. The presentation and the meetings went that good, and the results of the team were so impressive that the idea came almost naturally to start a cell in Pécs too. The key concept is to collect donations (only goods) from locals, cooking meals and delivering the food to those in need by bikes. The idea seems not to be ground-breaking but the concept works and turned out to be quite engaging.

Just do itÉva says that they started the pro-

ject not within the volunteer center because they wanted a more informal and more independent approach. Also

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CHARITY RIDES WITH THE MAFIA

Pécs ‘You have to start and do it. It’s that easy, everything else comes’ - says the organizer. ‘We knew the we can do cook - even for 30-50 people, we can find people in need, we can get the goods to them.

Not a franchiseSince the situation is different in Pécs

not everything could and would work the same way as it does in Budapest. Pécs Bike Maffia can’t be seen as a franchise partner. For example the ma-fia’s regular actions are mainly focus-ing on the homeless in the capitol. Éva Knyihar says that in Pécs the situation is a little bit better, since city govern-ment spends a lot on homeless-care, and here is a much better institutional background than in Budapest. That’s why they knew from the very first mo-ment on that their actions should fo-cus on poor families and old people not the homeless of Pécs. The second step when starting the project was ap-proaching authorities to help choosing whom to help. That said they also have plans to involve homeless-care, but not in the near future.

More to comeBudapest Bike Maffia developed sev-

eral methods for collecting and distrib-uting the goods. Some of these will be adopted but Éva says that they are only in the early stages of the project. In spite this, they already organized four events.

They organized the first event on their very own in November. Like said, It was a community cooking, but the next step was an even bigger success.

In December when thinking of cre-ating a permanent backer base they contacted several restaurants and the feedback was marvellous. Their initial

goal was to provide meals and Christ-mas presents to 20 families but word of mouth helped a lot: associations, res-taurants private persons heard about the operation and everybody was quite proactive. Finally 76 families got meal packages and Christmas gifts, and everything was delivered on bikes.

Éva says that they have got almost all the equipment they need for future ac-tions. And they do have a lot of plans: events will happen on a monthly basis. For each of these a different goal and location is set and they inform backers what is needed. They future plan is to have some storage space that could allow having a steady and balanced flow of goods. The next community cooking will happen in Pécs-Patacs, and they collect ingredients at Civil Közösségek Háza (Szent István square 5), every weekday until February 26.

The method is powerful

because local

donations find locals

in need

All photos in the article are courtesy of Pécs Bika Maffia (fb.com/pecsbikemaffia)


Feat

ure TOP5 EVENTS

THIS SPRING

There are a lot of events to highlight in your calendar, and it was not an easy task to choose our favourites. Interesting programmes are missing from this list-ing, and others we hope for, like the Craft Beer Festival, couldn’t be confirmed yet. Also it doesn’t follow the time-line, rather showing our own preferences.

After the big success of last year’s Pécs University Days (1) organizers agreed that there is a huge demand for the festival and they can’t think of any excuse not having it this year too. April 28-30 at Zsolnay Cultural Quarter. The first international performers have been an-nounced, among them the Grammy win-ner DJ Jazzy Jeff and Dope D.O.D. More info: fb.com/pecsiegyeteminapok.

Music by... (2) is one of the most suc-cessful series by Kodály Centre resident Pannon Philharmonics. The popularity of the series comes maybe from the fact that monumental movie soundtracks can be even more awesome when played live by an orchestra. On April 5 Hungar-ian-German conductor Christian Schu-mann hopefully will not only engage the orchestra, but the audience too. More info: pfz.hu/en

This is already the fourth time that Por-tugieser wine producers from all around Europe will gather in Pécs. The Portu-gieser Du Monde (3) is an international competition but there is also a wine tast-ing event open to everyone on April 2 at Zsolnay Cultural Quarter. More info, tickets: fb.com/PortugieserDuMonde.

Without doubt Amper Klub at Czinderi street has the best club sound system in the region. But high-class equipment is worth nothing without someone who can make the best sound come out of it. Here steps Australian born, long-time London resident Anthony Pappa (4) into the game. The master of electronic dance music plays in top clubs all around the word. More info on his gig in Pécs on April 2 and tickets: amperklub.hu

Bor, Mámor, Pécs (5) - we don’t bother translating the name of this wine and gastronomy festival taking place between May 5-8 since it could change, like it changed almost every year in the past. Yeah, it is a little bit confusing that the focus of this festival at Szechenyi square and the key message are slightly shifted every year, but if the weather, the wines and the food play well together we wouldn’t care either about the name. For more information, event updates follow: fb.com/pecsifesztival.

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Dri

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CHILI ROUND-UPIn recent years several local chili manufacturers stepped into the limelight, and you can freely choose how to make your face melting down. But capsicionids, the substances giving chilis their power, do not only deliver pain, but can lend an exciting touch to your foods. Keep in mind: use them wisely for the thrill or make a video and upload it somewhere so others can laugh at you.

Roberto ChiliRóbert Gyuris from Pécs started growing chi-

li peppers for his own joy, but suddenly ending up with 50 different species in his garden. This is not a quantity that a person or a family could han-dle and with the help of Norbert Raffai they created the brand Roberto Chili. They started selling chili flakes at local markets but you can buy their dif-ferent products at Nappali, Gastropolitan and online too.Website: robertochili.com

ChilionThe most successful local chili brand

was started in Szentlőrinc, that is about 15 min drive close to Pécs. But nobody has to go even that far since thanks to their start-up mentality their Bhut Jolokia, Habanero and Trinidad Scor-pio products are available online and all around Hungary at local markets. They have dried whole chili peppers, sauces, powders and the Scoville-score (up to 2 million!) of each product is indicat-ed on their packaging.Website: premiumchili.hu

GastrochiliThough Gastrochili is going to have only

its third harvest season in 2016, the va-riety of products is remarkable. Besides chili sauces, creams and dips Dávid Szi-dun makes pickled whole chilis too. All his plants grow in the Mecsek hills and you can usually catch him at local markets (like ASZPIK at Csinos Presszó). He takes orders via Facebook too.Website: fb.com/gastrochili

Capsicum.huThe leading gardener at Hentz &

Kéreg Gardening, Péter Schützenhofer started growing chilis in 2000. He does not only have a wide range of dried

and smoked chilis but a lot of differ-ent seeds to grow your own plants at home. (Chilis don’t take much space, they can feel good them-selves even in a pot.) The webshop

is full of special plants not only chilis. You can buy the products also at Hentz & Kéreg (Tiborc st 46) Website: capsicum.hu

Chiliszoszok.hu Maybe chiliszoszok.hu is a little bit out

of place here, since they do not have own products and have “only” a webshop. But they do have such a great range of products and their basis is in Pécs that we couldn’t

edit them out. They have a pic-up point at a local gas station (Tüskésréti str 3), but it’s easier to get the goods via mail. You have to order online anyway. The webshop is Hungarian only but

you can contact them via email too. And what do they offer? Capsaicin es-

sences, srirachas, purees, powders, flakes, seeds, chili desserts and even jelly made of chili. And this was only a fraction of the cate-gories to choose from.Website: chiliszoszok.hu

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Before the invention of modern refrig-eration processes smoking and salting used to be the best ways of food pres-ervation. But the combination of smoke and salt is not only a good practical ap-proach, it also delivers very tasty prod-ucts, and this is the explanation why traditional ways of curing will never van-ish inspite the fact that there are several modern processes of food preservation. But you wont meet these at Jovánczai.

I’m quite sure that Jovánczai Hét-pecsétes should be considered as a trademark of quality goods made with traditional methods, traditional Hungar-ian flavours and spicing. The product range of the shop makes it look like the storage room of a typical county house-

JOVÁNCZAI IS THE MASTER OF SMOKED PORK CUTS

hold, some months after pigslaugh-ter. You can buy not only smoked meat products but pickled vegetables and bottled fruits too.

And there is no doubt, the most im-portant goods are smoked pork parts, sausages and salamis. We tested their bacon and different types of salamis instantly. No regrets, since every piece delivered a great and authentic expe-rience. One secret is that they use very

good quality smoked paprika for the spicing of salamis. Besides

traditional flavours you can also get more experimental, and premium range salamis too. The bacon is sim-ple, honest and this is very impor-tant.

Sure there are several spots in the city where you can get good

quality smoked pork cuts, but this place has also some fresh, grilled products to offer. The grilled sausages are more then okay, and the pita-like bread is ten-der inside, crispy outside. Like it should be. The next time we will get some grilled mustard pork shoulder.

mecsekiitóka

The biggest comeback of recent months was pre-sented by Mecseki Itóka. The production of the alco-holic beverage was halted in 2004, and started again more than a decade lat-er. By the end of last year it showed up in several shops, but its future is still vague.

The history of the beverage dates back to the 1930s when pharmacist Kálmán Geiger from Pécs invented it. In the beginning it was named Mecseki Gyógyitóka (~healing drink from the Mecsek) but due to a lawsuit they had to change the name, since the heal-ing effects couldn’t be proved.

Nevertheless its made up of several herbal ingre-dients a lot of them hav-ing some proven heail-ing effects on their own.

Having a 10- year gap in production is a huge disad-vantage for any brand and we are not sure about the future of the drink.

But not only we do have our doubts: the factory does not advertise the relaunched product country wide. Management told us that they want to analyze sales data first and decide about future advertising only after then.

Competititon is fierce in the segment of bitter, herbal alcohol-ic drinks, though there are some upsides of Mecseki Itóka, like the nostalgy factor.

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Cured meat products accompanied by fresh sausages

BACON, BACON, HAM, HAM

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The first thing that made me happy about STB Streetfood & Bar was their choice of location. There are sever-al gastronomic hubs in Pécs but worth mentioning only two. Larger down-town, of course, and the vicinity of Uni-versity of Pécs. Downtown has several spots to get a great burger but the area of Ifjúság street was lacking that until September. Several shops tried to de-liver a great burger experience here, but unfortunately they all failed desperately.

STB has had also some difficulties with their first burgers. Actually, the big-gest problems occured always with the fries, which got much better over time but it is still not perfect. But everything else. The bun is very tasty from the be-

STB STREET FOOD & BAR IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK

ginning and much lighter now, and the patty has always been superb too. They changed the recipe for their coleslow several times, but I think they have the perfect formula right now.

The second thing about STB that I liked from the very first moment was that they try to be quite different from other restaurants in Pécs. I think their menu card, that mutated several times in recent months has very unique offers. But I’m not talking about foods like the

mac&cheese, hot-dogs, quesa-dilla only, since their daily offers are quite experimental.

Like said, it can’t be unseen that they try hard to deliver great dishes. This - I mean the experi-menting and constantly chang-ing menu - can be the reason that a lot of my friends had not

as positive experiences as I have had. I hope that STB finds a final master-

plan, and only small finetuning is need-ed, and experimenting can be left for the daily offers. Also, I’m quite sure that they are on the right track.

coffeetour

Block Coffee Room, NextStep Coffee, Pécsi Kávé, Kisülés and Fil-ter. Inspite the fact that these cof-fee houses are competitors their latest cooperation shows that they also have other shared values be-sides the love of quality coffee of course.

Thanks to the initiative of Filter, that we covered in the Novem-ber-December issue, the Pécs Coffee Tour card has been creat-ed. The shops had their own loy-alty cards but with this move a me-ta-loyalty card has been created.

The idea is simple, and worked in several cities around the world: get a stamp/sticker/fingerprint/sign next to the logo of each cof-fee house on the card and once you have collected all the five. Your next brew is for free and you can choose where to get it.

Great burger experience close to

the university

FOOD PORN

Pécs coffe lovers have been very lucky in recent months: five top quality, lo-cally owned coffee hous-es opened in 2015. But what happens when these superb shops unite their powers and try something together? The first coop-eration of this kind is an in-stant success in town.

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To D

o

Psychedelic jazz-rock may be not the most current and up-to-date style to choose, but the last three or four dec-ades have shown that the genre is time-less and Mostly Harmless from Pécs is trying to show that the genre isn’t bound to space neither. The trio does not hide where they get their influenc-es and proudly refer to hotshots of the

Péter Lengyel, Ádám Szabó, György Szász and Zsuzsa Tóth all belong to a middle-generation of sculptor, meaning they all have been through the search of their own art. They all had their very own starting difficulties, their own experiences, experimental phas-es, and their very own moments of enlightenment. Also the exhibit aims to show four artistic paths. All these can be observed in this exhi-bition at M21.

The vast spaces of the gallery are used quite differently by the four artists. We meet surreal and life-like objects, photographies of past, public installations. Inter-estingly the wide range of tech-niques and materials used are still able to build a show that has some unique, undefined coherence Until February 28, Tue-Sun: 10am-5pm. M21 (Zsolnay Cul-tural Quarter). HUF250-500.

Guess what: Pécsi Est Café turns sev-en years old, and they decided to cele-brate with a free, mini festival and four bands from Budapest.

The music industry is more fragment-ed then ever. This also means that small labels are feeling well and happy, while it became very easy to self-pub-lish a record. These conditions also

created sub-genres of music where pop meets underground, where elec-tronic music meets vocals, and where there are no boundaries at all. And this is the happy new world where four very different acts can introduce each-other on the same stage in one evening.February 20, 8pm, Pécsi Est Café (Rákóczi str 46) Free.

BLAHALUISIANA, PASSED, MARGE, THE NOBODY ELSES

MOSTLY HARMLESS 1970s like Genesis, Steely Dan, Yes and The Weather Report.

The origin of the band’s name is pub-lic as well: the last novel in the Hitchhik-er’s Guide to the Galaxy series by sci-fi author Douglas Adams is titled ‘Mostly Harmless’ where he refers to Earth. February 20, 8pm, Nappali Bár (Király str 23-25)

foursculptorsHBD

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Trüffel is both: a traditional Hungarian and a modern European con-fectionery, offering a uniquely wide range of high quality products. Trüffel is a real trend-setter thanks to the strategical partnership

with HART Wedding Design and photo artist Réka Keszthelyi. Trüffel is mindfullness, fresh products - a lot of them lactose, and sugar free.

Trüffel is the way to a sweeter life where having a sweet tooth is a must.

Pécs, Hársfa str. 34 | www.truffel.hu | [email protected] | facebook.com/Truffelcukipecs | Phone: +36704096661


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Chocolate CarnivalIt’s already the fourth time that

chocolate craftsmen from all around Hungary will gather in Pécs. Not only to show what they have got but to give some hints about current issues in their field. Workshops, presentation and of course a lots of chocolate. March 5-6, Zsolnay Cultural Quarter

Nappali’s 5th BirthdayWhen celebrating Nappali Bár’s

birthday we should remember that the venue became not only an important meeting point with superb hospitality in the last five years but its cultural, and commu-nity building efforts should taken into account equally. Exhibitions, concerts, conversation about so-cial issues: not every bar has the March 12, 8pm, Nappali Bár (Király str 23-25) Free.

Mongooze and the MagnetThe international band from

Pécs is going to have the first gig in town this year at Pécsi Est Café. The location is almost a home-coming to the frequently playing band, but this occasion will be unique since a new music video will be premiered and the ladies’ man Márk Járai preludes them. March 12, 9pm, Pécsi Est Cafe (Rákóczi str 46). HUF 900/1200.

PREVIEW:EVENTS IN MARCH

With the industrial revolution came several other revolutions. For example advertising became one of the most im-portant factors of (popular) culture. Ad-vertising became more and more like the marriage of art and marketing.

The exhibition at Vasváry-ház shows five decades of the history of fashion

and advertising. It covers changing fashions from 1900 to 1940 while pre-senting the roles of women using rarely seen items from the Hungarian Museum of Trade and Tourism from Budapest. February 10-April 16, Tue-Sat: 10am-4pm. Vasváry-ház (Király st 19). HUF 300-600.

BEAUTY AND ADVERTISING

The cinema is dead, long live the cin-ema! Television, online streaming, pirat-ing are all enemies of the movie theatre experience and to stay competitive new services have to be adopted continously. 3D screening is only one of them; thanks to advanced technologies Urania Cin-ema delivers great dramas, operas and concerts right from the theater hall. It’s al-most like seeing them live.

Co-directed by Kenneth Branagh the classic Shakespearen experience has been put into an Eastern European set-ting while keeping an almost orthodox interpretation of the The Winter’s Tale. The cast is superb including Judi Dench and the director himself.February 25, 8pm, Uránia (Hungária str 19) HUF1090-1500. in English with Hungarian subtitles.

SHAKESPEARE: THE WINTER’S TALE

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Pécs used to be a quiet little town un-til industrialization, mining (and social-ism) came around just before the two world wars. The city we see today is still strongly influenced (maybe scarred) by the tower blocks that were erected by the thousands to place the growing population moving to the cities.

While some think of these densely populated neighborhoods as “concrete jungles” one can find advantages to them also. The biggest element is purely cultural: “panel” houses (as Hungarians call them, referring to the prestructured concrete building blocks) popped up everywhere in the Eastern Block of Europe from the 1960s and until the end of the socialist era almost 800 thousand apartments were constructed in Hungary. Pécs still has some of the biggest housing projects (Kertváros, Megyer and Uránváros) in the country – and the more than 25 thousand flats meant that literally everybody had friends or relatives living in those high rises. The kids growing up in these uniform con-crete boxes shared the same experienc-es: they might not be able to tell a cow

from a bull as their village friends could, but were sure to find a bathroom in any of the project apartments in seconds.

Panel houses (let us stick with the Hungarian word for them) did huddle up great numbers of people but also provided the much needed modern comfort in an age when even running water was not evident in city apartments either.

We cannot deny that the first dec-ades of the panel-age mostly meant forced and rushed constructions, still, almost all of the buildings stand tall

even today and house families. Mod-ernization is inevitable however, but some insulation and other renewal projects make these buildings last for some more decades according to ex-

perts. So if you get the chance to move into one of these, you will most likely move out because of your graduation before anything else.

A roaring exception to the affordable and habitable concrete boxes story is standing 25 stories tall in the middle of Pécs – not a real success story. The Ma-gasház (as the locals call their 1974-76 built but since 1989 abandoned ghost tower) was constructed with too loose-ly adapted instructions, resulting in se-rious structural damage in the long run. Ironically, our little skyscraper with its

250 apartments still stands tall but has to be cleared away – the project has already started and is

expected to last at least a year. Until then let us pay attention to

the panel houses that are here to stay: the ones that resembled ghet-

tos enough in the 1990s to give western gangsta rap a fertile soil in the East, the ones that still of-

fer affordable housing and guaranteed company to middle class families, these small towns and their communities that will form a huge part of this nation for decades (or centuries) to come.

CONCRETE GARDENSby

László Nógrádi

Esse

ntia

ls

Dense areas with small town traits

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Pécs City Guide | February 2016 | Issue 09

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Transcript of Pécs City Guide | February 2016 | Issue 09