This County lies at the junction of the Little Hungarian Plain (Kisalföld), the Sopron Hills (Soproni-hegység), and Alpokalja and Bakony and the Sokoró Hills (Sokorói-dombság). Its territory evolved from joining parts of the historic counties of Győr, Sopron, Moson, and Pozsony. Thereafter some municipalities in Veszprém County also joined (in several stages between 1920 and 2002).
This County, being adjacent to Austria and Slovakia, constitutes the north-western entrance to Hungary: Roads, railways, and waterways of European significance cross its territory.
Its memorable monuments include the downtown of Győr, Sopron and Mosonmagyaróvár, the Esterházy Mansion in Fertőd, the Széchenyi Mansion in Nagycenk, and the churches and mansions of its towns and villages. The Millenary Benedictine Archabbey of Pannonhalma and the Fertő/Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape were listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Two national parks, many landscape protection areas and nature parks, and several nature reserves can also be found in the County.
The purpose of the SacraVelo project managed by the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Government and completed with support of the European Union is to jointly introduce people to the sacred values of the counties of the Hungarian-Slovakian border region that are located along the Danube, so that people could spend their time actively and cycle tourism may thrive.
The network of the SacraVelo bicycle pilgrim routes follows the popular and beloved tourist destinations and the EuroVelo international bicycle route network.
The SacraVelo project package encompassing Győr-Moson-Sopron, Komárom-Esztergom, Nagyszombat, and Pozsony counties indicates a network of routes along the sacred values that is safe to cover by bicycle. There are also cycling centres in Bacsfa (Csallóköz) and Szil (Rábaköz), constituting two locations of the network that are offered and signed with plates.
The network of SacraVelo bicycle pilgrim routes assigned to Győr-Moson-Sopron County is 648 kilometres long and comprises 110 municipalities, along which 82 smaller resting-places were founded. The network in the County offers 209 sacred sights, and people are guided by 139 signboards providing maps and information in four languages. The sacred destinations are presented using both traditional and modern equipment and methods (i.e. website and mobile application), which provide cycling pilgrims and tourists with useful additional information apart from information related to finding the interesting locations and showing the sights in detail.
A 13. század második felében épített templomra 1529-ben a szájhagyomány szerint a törökök félholdas zászlót tűztek ki. A reformáció után 1673-ig az evangélikusok használták a templomot. Az Árpád-kori istenháza napjainkban is őrzi román és gótikus részleteit, a félköríves apszist, a déli homlokzat csúcsíves ablakait és a kőkeretes ajtót. 1658-ban új tornyot kapott a templom. A 18. század végén barokk stílusban átépítettek és támpillérekkel erősítettek meg, hogy a dongaboltozatot elbírják a falak. A szögekkel kivert ajtón belépve a villogó fehérség és a mélykék szentély ellentéte fogadja a látogatót. A szentélyt betöltő festmény 1893-ban készült. E falképén – a Szentháromság alatt – a névadó apostolok, Péter és Pál láthatók. A barokk szószékre faragott evangéliumi jelenet Jézus és a szamariai asszony találkozását ábrázolja. A két keretezett „karácsonyi” festmény (a pásztorok imádása, a háromkirályok hódolata) szintén barokk munka. Ezeknél is régebbi alkotás a máriacelli kegyszobor másolata.
The village’s first church was built by Lőrinc Széchényi and was consecrated around 1677 by his son, great provost Paul (later Bishop and then Archbishop of Kalocsa). The current church was built in 1843-1844 in late Classicist style, under the direction of György Szinger. Twenty seats and a chalice dating from 1718 inscribed with GVNT. SIGHET remain from the old church. The altarpiece depicts the martyrdom of St Lawrence. The church’s interior painting is marble-effect. The ceiling frescoes were created by Antal Borsa in 1957. The marble plaque at the cross in front of the church commemorates Benedictine father Teodóz Jáki, who for decades led the traditional Easter “Searching for Jesus” procession at Kunsziget, which is also considered a county value.
According to one legend connected to the history of the chapel, those injured in battles with the Turks as well as other sick people were healed by the water from the spring here. Other legends have it that a fisherman found a linden statue depicting Mary and the baby Jesus and a soldier found a picture of Mary at the spring. These were placed in the Protestant church around 1540, they were then housed in a cabin and eventually placed in the chapel built above the spring. The chapel burned down in 1873, but the picture and the small carved statue remained intact. The chapel was rebuilt in neo-Romanesque style in 1874 with the devotional statue of Mary holding a queen’s mace and an orb in Jesus’s hands; both are adorned with crowns. The spring water under the stone-slab-paved sanctuary was directed to a well outside the chapel. Besides the devotional statue, the six stained-glass windows and the Masa Feszty picture depicting the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth are worthy of attention.The Holy Well and the devotional statue attract thousands of pilgrims every year. The devotional chapel is part of the Győr-Moson-Sopron County Values Depository.
The village’s former church, built in honour of the Holy Spirit, was used by the Protestants in the mid-17th century. The existing church, dating back to 1674, was built for the Catholics and was consecrated by Archbishop of Kalocsa, György Széchényi. The church had to be rebuilt after the Turkish ravages and then also after the 1829 flood. The large Baroque altarpiece depicts the Holy Trinity. The upper, three-part picture depicts St Sebastian, St Roch and St Rosalie. Other valuable Baroque works include the pulpit balustrade’s panel pictures as well as the small group of statues on the baptismal font representing the baptism of Jesus. The World War II memorial plaque on the church wall was unveiled in 1991.
The Church became Calvinist after the Reformation but was returned to the Catholics at the end of the 17th century. The present Baroque parish church was built in 1757 in a new location. At this time, besides the patron saint of the old church, St Gotthard, John of Nepomuk, one of the most popular saints in the 18th century, also became a patron saint of the church.The sanctuary’s vaulting originally depicted the apotheosis of St John of Nepomuk and St Gotthard. The frescoes, painted in 1770, can now be viewed in the Hanság Museum. The nave’s vaulting was painted in 1938, while the sanctuary gained a completely new composition during the 1995 renovation. The church’s stained-glass windows were made in 1891-92.The Baroque high altar is a pillared, canopy-domed construction, which is a replica of the altar at Mariazell. The side altars dedicated to St Joseph and St John of Nepomuk were created in 1770. The church’s newest pictorial depictions are the enamel paintings of the Way of the Cross stations.
The church, built in the 13th century in honour of St Adrian, was rebuilt in Gothic style in the 15th century. This small church was used by the Protestants from the mid-16th century and again by the Catholics from 1619, when it received the name of St Gotthard. A new, larger church was erected in its place and was consecrated in 1668. Besides St Gotthard, the high altar also gained a statue of Mary, Queen of the Rosary, which was quickly dedicated as a devotional statue. Another transformation took place between 1771 and 1777. The statue of Mary from the old high altar was placed on the high altar of the reconstructed sanctuary. Frescoes were not only added to the vaulting, but the side altars were also replaced with frescoes. The stained-glass windows were made in 1902 and 1907. The crypt of the Habsburg family’s Olováry branch was created in the lower church and the coffins of Archduke Frederick and his wife Isabella Croy were placed there.
The chapel in the triangular square was erected by the citizens of Moson in honour of St Sebastian, Saint Roch and St Rosalie, probably in fulfilment of their pledge during the plague of 1713. It was expanded in the second half of the 18th century; the altar was added at this time too. A new wooden tower was constructed above the facade. The chapel gained a new brick tower during the 1902-1903 renovation. Stained-glass windows were added around the turn of the century: the nave was embellished with ornamental decorations, while the sanctuary was decorated with a glass image of an angel blowing a trombone. There is a list of World War II heroes engraved on a plaque in the wall recess of the main facade. The Baroque altarpiece stolen from the chapel was replaced in 2001 by a new painting depicting St Rosalie.
The chapel on the former main street of the village of Lucsony, which later became part of the town, was built in 1713. The Chapel of St Anne, dedicated to St Fabian, St Roch, St Sebastian and St Rosalie, was erected by the citizens of Lucsony in exchange for their pledge during the plague. The facade of the simple gable-roofed building is crowned with a wooden bell tower. There is a statue of the Immaculate Conception (Immaculata) in the small recess above the entrance. The interior boasts a beautiful Baroque altar with a statue of St Anne teaching young Mary at its centre. Beneath them, St Rosalie lies in her grave.
The unusual shaped church and parish building sanctified in 1987 was designed by Péter Ráskai. The three-piece fresco-secco depicting an Emmaus scene in the atrium and the murals in the sanctuary of the crypt depicting the eight beatitudes and the resurrected Christ were painted by Asztrik Kákonyi. The stained-glass windows on the two sides of the sanctuary depicting the crucifixion of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit were designed by him and constructed by Attila Mohai.Two enamel pieces made by László Barabás can be seen on the wall of the sanctuary: above the figure of Christ almost bending from the cross, under it the tabernacle door with the Eucharist symbols (chalice, ear of wheat, grapes).The statues depicting Saint Therese of Lisieux, Saint Anthony and Saint Francis of Assisi, as well as Saint Joseph are the artistic carvings of Ferenc Berecz.The two series of glass mosaics designed by Imre Tolnay were made by István Krizsán: the 9 Biblical scenes covering the balustrade of the gallery and the 14 stations of the cross. The mosaic depicting the Merciful Jesus was created by Szilvia Krizsán.The statues of the nourishing and teaching Christ and of Our Lady of Lourdes (works of Tibor Rieger), as well as the statue of Saint Pope John Paul II (work of Ervin Páljános) are standing on the square in front of the church.
According to a letter dated in 1815 “there has been a Lutheran schoolmaster in Újfalu for more than thirty years”. Therefore, there was already a master – and certainly a congregation – in the municipality in the last years of the reign of Maria Theresa of Austria. The Lutherans built a new chapel in 1865, and a new school in 1905. The church designed by Barna Káldy was built between 1949 and 1950 from the donations of the local congregation, the diocese and Lajos Németh. The bell of the church sanctified by Bishop Zoltán Túróczy is from 1866. The altarpiece was painted by Ödön Raksányi. The brass crucifix and candelabrum are the artworks of Bandi Shima, a goldsmith of Győr.The new parish built from the former school building was sanctified on 25 August 2018 by Deacon Miklós Kiss.
The Lutheran congregation of the municipality is known from 1646, it was the filial church of the mother church of Bogyoszló. The residents of Jobaháza who retained their faith joined the congregation of Farád following the publication of the Patent of Toleration and the emancipation of the congregation of Farád.The congregation received land in 1842, then started building the new school and teacher’s residence in 1847. They received a bell weighing 190 kilograms in 1859, then started construction again in 1869: they built a separate school which also served as a house of worship. Jobaháza has had a vibrant church society, and the sorority was established in 1896 which was operated until the beginning of the 1950s. The present chapel with a bell tower was completed in 1997 with the cooperation of the congregation.
A little chapel was built in 1441 maintained by a Pauline hermit to pay tribute to Saint Wolfgang. A few years later his fellow members of the order settled down there and started to build the church together with the monastery around 1482. The nave of the Gothic-style church has five sections, and its sanctuary with tracery windows has two sections. Its main altar is decorated by the 16th-century altarpiece depicting the Black Madonna of Częstochowa. The jewellery and crowns affixed to the painting demonstrate respect for her to this day. The side altar and choir stalls of the church rebuilt in Baroque style were made around 1750, while the mural of the balustrade of the gallery depicting the Apostles were made around 1770, and its benches were carved in Rococo style. Following the dissolution of the Pauline Order in 1786, the church stood empty until 1827. The monastery was first used as accommodation for miners, then it was a hospital and later a warehouse. The building was a home for Carmelite nuns from 1892 until 1950. The coat of arms of the Nádasdy and the Esterházy families can be seen on its façade.
The church having a single nave and a surface area of only 58 square metres stands in an area surrounded by a natural stone wall. The Roman and Early Gothic style elements are both seen in the valuable monument. Its square sanctuary was built in the Arpad-era from carved stones. The year 1427 appears on the keystone of its gothic vault. The tower was built in the 14th century. There is a sitting booth and a mural depicting a bishop in the sanctuary, while a stone pulpit and a baptismal font stand in the nave. The fragments of fresco paintings in the nave depict the Three wise men and the last prayer and repose of Mary. Several parts of the walls preserved traces of ornamental decorations and colouring, as well as coat of arms and inscriptions carved in the wall.
The first written record of the church is from 1278. It attained its grand, unchanged size in 1484 when the transept was added and the sanctuary was extended. Presumably, King Matthias also attended the sanctification of the church. Despite of its reconstruction in the 19th century the Gothic church preserved several medieval, 15th-century murals or fragments thereof. The wooden Madonna statue was made between 1460 and 1470, and the churchyard also has 17th-century, late-Renaissance tombstones. The mesh ribbed vault and its keystones in the sacristy, as well as the old, glazed tile flooring of the treasury are also worth mentioning. The Neo-Gothic fitting was made at the time of the restoration between 1859 and 1866 according to the designs of Sr. Ferenc Storno.The Saint James’s Chapel next to the church is an octagon-shaped rotunda. The stone carving on the peristyle of the chapel’s gate: a tree of life in the middle with a dragon figure on both sides.
Here was once the entrance of the winegrower quarter beyond the stream Ikva. The church was probably built by the Johannite knights in addition to the hospital maintained by them. Its tower and Western façade may have been built in the first quarter of the 15th century. A finial with a weather cock stands on the hexagonal stone helm above the gothic windows since 1673. A Baroque atrium with a decorative gate is connected to the church and the foot of the small Gothic tower. The inner walls and vault of the church are adorned by the fresco paintings made by István Dorfmeister in 1782. The artist painted the larger-than-life figures of Church Fathers as statues standing in compartments. The main altar was caused to be erected by Lipót Kollonits, the bishop of Wiener Neustadt. The altarpiece of the church which is Gothic on the outside and Baroque on the inside depicts the Pentecost scene of the coming of the Holy Spirit.The activities of István Dorfmeister in Sopron are documented by a commemorative plaque on the external wall of the church.
According to a medial story, János Schmuckenpfennig, a citizen of Sopron, was involved in a murder. The perpetrator donated a plot – according to the sentence imposed by Pope Boniface IX – where a church was built in five years as a result of a construction that started in 1393. The church was used by the Lutherans between 1555 and 1673. Following the fire of 1676 the Jesuits renovated the building in Baroque style. The statues of Mary and Saint Joseph were placed on its façade. The eight side-chapels of the originally Gothic church and the whole internal wall received stucco decoration. Its altars, statues, benches and pulpit are all elaborately decorated Baroque creations. Hungary’s oldest organ, the 1633 work of Johann Wöckherl, a craftsman from Vienna, can be found in the church. The Baroque tower connected to the main façade came tumbling down on the street in 1869. The 55 metres high new tower was built on the other side of the church, on the rotunda of the castle wall. The following Latin inscription can be read on it: “Built for the glory of God in 1882”. The renovation following the destructions of the world wars also made the medieval parts found below the Baroque architecture visible.
The Franciscan monks built their monastery at first, then added a church to it around 1280 which is an outstanding piece of the Hungarian Gothic architecture. The peristyle of its southern gate is adorned by a 15th-century, hooded Mary statue. Its vault and choir are both 15th-century works, but its fittings are Baroque. Its fresco paintings and gothic windows are true masterpieces. The altarpiece elaborately decorated by statues below the medieval consoles shaped like deformed human heads is an 18th-century relic. From one of its pulpits preached Saint John of Capestrano who was gathering an army against the Turks before the victorious battle of Nándorfehérvár. The other pulpit is an 18th-century piece adorned by statues and reliefs. The church was a scene of several historical events: coronation of a king in 1625, coronation of queens, parliaments, the church was used by Benedictine monks as of 1802 which was also the burial site of the Esterházy and the Széchényi families. The late Gothic chapter room together with the church host an interactive exhibition. The building also named as the Goat church received its name because the builder, Henrik Geisel’s coat of arms decorated with a goat can be seen both on the façade of the tower and the consoles of the gallery.
The Dominicans were settled down in Sopron by Erzsébet Batthyány in 1674. The monks bought a house and a plot in 1700 at the place of the present-day monastery and church. They installed a chapel in the monastery and established the Confraternity of the Rosary in 1703. The groundbreaking ceremony and the blessing of the present-day church was on 15 November 1719, the first mass was celebrated in 1723, at the feast of Saint Peter of Verona. The building complex was designed and the construction was led by Lőrinc Eisenkölbl. The Baroque fitting, the main altar, the pulpit carved from golden and painted wood adorned by a statue depicting the founder of the order, the benches and the confessional were carved by a Dominican monk in the 18th century. The two towers were completed in 1775. The Chapel of Perpetual Adoration named after Saint Thomas Aquinas was opened in 2017 on the side of the monastery facing Mátyás király Street.
The Ursuline nunnery was founded by a Viennese woman named Maria Niggl in 1746. This was the time when the first church was built to pay tribute to the Holy Cross which was also visited by Maria Theresa of Austria in 1773. The Neo-Gothic church designed by Nándor Handler was sanctified in 1864. The statue of Immaculate Conception can be found in the middle of its façade, while the statues of Saint Ursula and Saint Angela Merici can be seen in the compartments of the cornerstones. The Neo-Gothic main altar made of oak was given as a gift by Bishop János Simor. The altarpiece depicts the Immaculate Conception, the altar wings include the reliefs of Saint Ursula and Saint Augustine, as well as the small statues of Saint Stephen and Saint Ladislaus. The side altars were built to pay tribute to Saint Angela Merici and Saint Joseph, while the altarpieces were painted by Franz Josef Dobyaschofsky in 1864. The oratory of the nunnery hosts an exhibition of church art.
The Lutheran congregation firstly established in Hungary in 1565 has had a chapel at the place of the present-day church since 1674. The wooden chapel was rebuilt in 1676 following the great city fire, then it was extended in the 18th century. Since the stone church built in 1722 turned out to be small, the congregation requested the monarch in February 1781 to allow the construction of a larger church. The construction was started already under the Patent of Toleration, and Joseph II stipulated that the church to be built should have neither a bell nor a tower, and its gate could not face the street. The church was sanctified in 1784 during the priesthood of József Torkos. Due to the watery area the building stands on 182 alder stilts. One part of the town wall came down during the construction of the huge hall church divided into three naves by eight pillars, and the debris was taken to the no longer relevant ditch. Thus, the first, non-medieval exit of the city centre was created. The sanctification of the tower and the bells was in 1867. The church in Sopron having 2500 seats is the third largest Lutheran church of Hungary.