Györ

Györ (Ger. Raab), a town of Hungary, capital of a county of the same name, 88 m. W. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 27,758. It is situated at the confluence of the Raab with the Danube, and is composed of the inner town and three suburbs. Györ is a well-built town, and is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop. Amongst its principal buildings are the cathedral, dating from the 12th century, and rebuilt in 1639-1654; the bishop’s palace; the town hall; the Roman Catholic seminary for priests and several churches. There are manufactures of cloth, machinery and tobacco, and an active trade in grain and horses. Twenty miles by rail W. S. W. of the town is situated Csorna, a village with a Premonstratensian abbey, whose archives contain numerous valuable historical documents.

Györ is one of the oldest towns in Hungary and occupies the site of the Roman Arabona. It was already a place of some importance in the 10th century, and its bishopric was created in the 11th century. It was a strongly fortified town which resisted successfully the attacks of the Turks, into whose hands it fell by treachery in 1594, but they retained possession of it only for four years. Montecucculi made Györ a first-class fortress, and it remained so until 1783, when it was abandoned. At the beginning of the 19th century, the fortifications were re-erected, but were easily taken by the French in 1809, and were again stormed by the Austrians on the 28th of June 1849.

About 11 m. S.E. of Györ on a spur of the Bakony Forest lies the famous Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma (Ger. St Martinsberg; Lat. Mons Sancti Martini), one of the oldest and wealthiest abbeys of Hungary. It was founded by King St Stephen, and the original deed from 1001 is preserved in the archives of the abbey. The present building is a block of palaces, containing a beautiful church, some of its parts dating from the 12th century, and lies on a hill 1200 ft. high. The church has a tower 130 ft. high. In the convent there are a seminary for priests, a normal school, a gymnasium and a library of 120,000 vols. The chief abbot has the rank of a bishop, and is a member of the Upper House of the Hungarian parliament, while in spiritual matters he is subordinate immediately to the Roman curia.