We changed room in the Szidonia Castle hotel – moved closer to the wellness area! The new room was as lovely as the previous one, though I missed our rose garden a little.
After breakfast, Flemming took our car and we drove to Sopron, a town right on the Austrian border, for sightseeing. There were endless sunflower fields on both sides of the road:
Parking was easy in the very centre of Sopron, with several parking houses available. The first thing we noticed getting out of the underground parking, was a church with two towers, and we decided to visit it:
It was the church of St. Judas Thaddeus, and it was stunning:
The church was built in the beginning of 18th century in a Baroque style in honour of the Holy Apostle Judas Thaddeus. The ceiling frescoes were amazing:
The sign in the church asked not to enter wearing inappropriate clothing. We respected that and quickly left, though it was so pleasantly cool there, and beautiful. Outside, it was the usual +35C.
A phone box – it worked, Flemming checked it out:
We walked towards the old main square, adoring the buildings around us. I like houses in decay (not that I’d like to live in such one), and find them charming:
On the old market square, there were many interesting buildings. The Trinity statue in the middle was erected during the plague epidemic of 1695:
The statue is also special because it was the first outdoor twisted column erected in all of Central Europe. Previously, such a decorative element was only used in building interiors.
In the southern part of the square, there was the church of Blessed Mary, the most antient church of Sopron:
In 1625, the coronation of the Hungarian King Habsburg Ferdinand III took place in that church, therefore the church is often called The Coronation Church.
It has also been nicknamed The Goat Church. A legend has it, a goat unearthed a large amount of gold from the ground upon which the church now stands. The goatherd donated all the gold so that a church would be built. You will see on the Holy Trinity Column a goat being hugged by an angel.
Another remarkable building on the old market square was The Gambrinus House, that was donated to Sopron in 1422 by the King Sigmund I for the purpose of functioning as a town hall:
It was later owned by several families, and today there is a restaurant. In its cellar, a part of the historical Amber Road was excavated. Gambrinus means Amber; hence the name.
Sopron was such a beautiful town, we were overwhelmed with its medieval architecture, churches, cobblestone streets. On one of the churches, the carved figures on its facade had faces of dogs or something, but one of them had a human face (it would be interesting to know why):
One could easily spend much more time in Sopron. This town was a very interesting discovery.
Flemming and I were tired after walking all day. We didn’t want to go to our gourmet restaurant in the Szidonia Castle hotel (mostly to avoid eating too much, because we had lots of good food in Sopron). So we bought some ready-made low-calorie salads, and of course Hungarian rosé sparkling – we were in the wine region, after all.
We reached an hour in the spa area before having a dinner in our room.
