Basilica of Pécs

Pécs, Southern Hungary, Hungary

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The Basilica of Pécs, officially known as the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, is the main Catholic cathedral of the Diocese of Pécs in southern Hungary.

Its foundations date back to Roman times, around the 4th or 5th century, and the site later hosted an early Christian basilica before the current cathedral was begun in the 11th century under Hungary’s first king, Saint Stephen. The church has been rebuilt and enlarged many times, acquiring Gothic chapels and two side towers in the Middle Ages, then being converted into a mosque during the Ottoman occupation in the 16th century before being reconsecrated as a church in the late 1600s. 

Today the basilica appears in a striking neo‑Romanesque style from a major late‑19th‑century reconstruction designed by Viennese architect Friedrich von Schmidt, with four towers and a long, three‑nave interior richly decorated with paintings and sculptures. It stands as one of Pécs’s most important architectural and spiritual landmarks, symbolizing over a thousand years of Christian history in the region and serving as a focal point in the city’s historic center.