Cella Septichora Visitor Center - Pécs

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Early Christian monuments in Pécs

Roman-era Pécs, then known as Sopianae, was a settlement of the Roman Empire in the province of Pannonia, and in the 4th century it was the civil administrative centre of the province of Valeria. At that time, serious urban development and construction took place, and the city was enriched with new buildings to fulfil its administrative duties: the governor's palace and the judicial building, the basilica, were built on the main square. Clerks moved here to perform administrative tasks. Businessmen, wealthy merchant families, and industrial craftsmen arrived in the thriving city from various parts of the empire, who eventually settled here as well. Shops were opened, workshops were established, economic life picked up and the settlement grew into a real bustling Roman city.

At the same time, Christianity spread rapidly in the empire. At the beginning of the 4th century, Christianity was only tolerated, then it became a religion of equal rank, and by the end of the century it was the dominant and now exclusive religion. At that time, a significant Christian community lived in the city of Sopianae. Christian belief was also reflected in architecture and art. Beyond the city wall, early Christian cemetery buildings were built in the large northern cemetery, wealthy families created rich burial places for themselves and the walls of the tombs were decorated with Christian-themed murals, early Christian symbols, and Biblical stories. These early Christian monuments are now world heritage sites.


Outstanding universal values

The early Christian necropolis of Sopianae was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2000. The tombs, memorial chapels, mausoleums and burial edifices discovered in the cemetery form an ensemble that stands out by far from similar sites of the age. In terms of its size and richness, the cemetery complex is the most significant necropolis monument outside Italy.

The necropolis of Sopianae represents the richest architectural collection of early Christian burial monuments. The importance of the building complex lies on the one hand in the varied architectural solutions: the cemetery is made up of a series of burial edifices with different floor plans and different types. On the other hand, its significance lies in the specific architectural structure of the cemetery buildings: a large number of two-story burial edifices (a small underground crypt and a memorial chapel above) and large single-space community cemetery buildings sunk into the ground as well as built graves, were found in the area of the early Christian necropolis. In no other cemeteries of the late Roman Empire were these buildings with varied floor plans and different structures found together in such a large number, just in the northern cemetery of Sopianae. The artistic diversity of outstanding Christian-themed murals richly decorating the walls are also a part of the extraordinary universal value. The sophisticated frescos are considered high-quality works of the time.