Gyor Favorites

Favorite thing: In the pedestrianized town center, there are a number of amusing public sculptures by contemporary artists. You can spend some time trying to figure out what their inner meaning is, or can you simply enjoy the skill with which they have created these pieces.

Favorite thing: A good way to measure a city's self-esteem is to look at its flower beds. Gyor's public spaces had plentiful flowers, carefully selected, weeded, and watered. This flower garden was on the small island in the middle of one of Gyor's rivers.

Favorite thing: In the 1600s, Gyor was the last outpost of the Habsburg Empire. It was an important fortress and bulwark of the Austrian army, at a time when Buda and Pest were firmly under the control of the Turks. (And long before that, it had been an important Roman military fortress.) Vestiges of Gyor's frontier heritage are very visable, especially down along the Raba river, where the City Wall has been well-preserved.

Favorite thing: This sculpture of two of the most important cultural figures of Magyar monasticism stands not far from the Marian Column. Gergely Czuczor (1800-1866) was a Magyar poet and philologist. His 1848 epic "The Alarm" was a clarion call for his national brothers, and earned him a place in prison for two years. As a Benedictene monk, he was a brother to Anyos Jedlik (1800-1895), a monk with extensive interests in the sciences and mathematics, partically physics. He created an early and efficient dynamo, an electromagnetic rotating device that predated the famous invention of Siemens. He served at the Budapest University both as a Dean of the Arts faculty and as Rector of the entire university. 19th century Hungary was an exciting center of culture and progress.

Favorite thing: Gyor has been an sigificant city in the creation of the modern identity. After visiting the city, I was interested to read about some of the historical figures commemorated there. This statue of Karoly Kisfaludy is in a prominent location, in one of the most important squares in Gyor. Kisfaludy lived from 1788 to 1830, and was a playwright important in the creation of a Magyar national theatre in the days when Hungary was still yoked to Habsburg Austria. His play "Tatars in Hungary" is credited with being the first celebration on stage of the Magyar fatherland.

Favorite thing: I didn't eat at either of these places, so I can't give them recommendations, but they certainly have a pleasing location. The statue of a man with a deer in the center of the square is part of Gyor's excellent program of public sculpture.

Favorite thing: here,took place in medieval times,the market.
in the square center,virgin mary's column (1686) to celebrate buda reconquest against turks.

Fondest memory: buildings of the past well preserved.....in the middle of an industrial region....