Sopron - Scarbantia Traditional Geocache
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Here you can find the main square of this little town, the almost uniqe Firewatch tower, the gate of faith, the County Hall and Goat Curch, and the remains of the ancient town Scarbantia.
ATTENTION
Do not use stickers or stamps for logging.
Please use stealth mode, as this is muggles full area!
Hide the cache well.
When todays Western Hungary was a province of the Roman Empire, a city called Scarbantia stood here. Its forum was located here, at main square of Sopron. Not far away from the cache you can find the remains of the ancient town (go right) and the city wall.
Scarbantia was believed to be deserted during the migration period and by the time Hungarians arrived in the area, it was already in ruins. In the 9th–11th centuries Hungarians strengthened the old Roman city walls and built a castle. The town was named after Hungarian castle steward named Suprun.
In 1273 King Otakar II of Bohemia occupied the castle. Even though he took the children of Sopron's nobility with him as hostages.
The city opened its gates when the armies of King Ladislaus IV of Hungary arrived. The king rewarded Sopron by elevating it to the rank of free royal town.
In 1655 half of the citizens died of plague.
In 1676 Sopron was destroyed by a fire.
The modern-day city was born in the next few decades, when beautiful Baroque buildings were built in place of the old medieval ones.
Sopron is also known for the plebiscit in December 14, 1921, when after local unrest, Sopron's status as part of Hungary was decided by a controversial, local plebiscite, with 65% voting for Hungary. Since then Sopron has been called Civitas Fidelissima ("The Most Loyal Town“).
The other important date for Sopron is Avgust 19, 1989, when it was the site of the Pan-European Picnic, a protest on the border between Austria and Hungary, which was used by over 600 citizens of East Germany to escape from the GDR to the West. As the first successful crossing of the border it helped pave the way for the mass flight of East German citizens that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
Famous visitors of Sopron:
- King Matthias Corvinus lived two months, from December 1482 to February 1843 in the Storno House on the Main square.
- Franz Liszt was born in Doborjan in Sopron County in October 22, 1811 and appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pozsony (German: Pressburg; present-day Bratislava, Slovakia) in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franz's musical education abroad. The next time when Franz Liszt had concert in Sopron was twenty years later, in 1840.
Sources:
1.- Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com)
2.- Our Town - Sopron (www.sopron.hu)
3.- http://www.madzarscina.si
4.- Funzine (www.funzine.hu)
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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