Megye Baranya

County Baranya

The historic town of Pécs was once the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia. The climate is mediterranean and the area is fertile, famous for wine and vegetables.

North of the town lie two small karst areas called Mecsek Hills and Villányi Hills. The Mecsek Hills have several stream caves and potholes, the largest stream cave of the area is the Showcave Abaligeti-barlang. The western part of the Mecsek Mountains is covered by karstified Triassic limestones in an area of 38 km². The Jakabhegy Anticline lifted the layers and so the impermeable and not soluble rock which once covered the limestone, Triassic sandstones and mudstones, were eroded. The central part is the Szuado valley with a bunch of interesting karst features like several ponors and caves. The most famous are Szuadó-barlang, Bagoly-forrás,Laci-forrás, Szuadó-forrás, and Mihály remete-forrás. Some of the caves, especially the biggest one called Cave Trio barlang, are guided in cave trekking tours. The Villányi Hills have beautiful hydrothermal caves which are rich in unique crystal formations.

The Mecsek hills in and around the city of Pécs are famous for their steam coal and uranium ore mining. The coal mining started during the 19th century after the Danube Steamshipping Company ordered geological surveys in the area. They obviously needed coal for their steam ships. During the Cold War the uranium deposits became much more important. However, mining ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union and from 1990 the mining ended and the former mining companies were doing some years of cleaning work.