HUNDRED YEARS OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF PÉCS (1923-2023)

Abstract

The study gives an overview of the geography of Pécs in the last century. Pécs was the seat of the first medieval Hungarian university, but it was only operational for a short period. The memory of the university of King Louis the Great is still alive in the city, and efforts to reorganise university life have been renewed over the centuries. This finally took place in 1923, and the Erzsébet University of Pécs Geographical Institute was founded under the leadership of Professor Gyula Prinz. The history of geography teaching and research at the university has been a turbulent one. After the difficult years of its foundation, which were marked by austerity, it was temporarily closed down during the World War II. and survived as a profile of a research institute of the Transdanubian Scientific Institute (DTI) from 1943. After the socialist turnaround, geography teacher training was organized based on college teacher training and laid the foundations for today’s geography education in the university. Following the change of regime in 1990, there was a period of prosperity, with a significant expansion in the number of instructors and students. The DTI, meanwhile, has also experienced a boom in parallel, becoming the centre of a national regional research network. By the 2010s, both organisations were in crisis, from which they are seeking a way out in this centenary year.