4 Best Sights in Sopron, Hungary

The city's attractive main square is dominated by the early Gothic Soproni Nagyboldogasszony templom (Blessed Mary Benedictine Church), better known as the Goat Church for reasons both fantastical (it's said the church was financed with treasure found by a billy goat) and practical (goats feature on the coat of arms of the actual church financiers). It's a real mishmash of styles, with a Gothic choir, a rococo main altar, and a baroque red-marble pulpit, along with recently discovered medieval tombs. Outside stands the 18th-century Szentháromság-szobor (Holy Trinity Column), Hungary's finest plague memorial and among the first anywhere to feature a twisted column.

Facing the square are three very different but equally fascinating museums. Fabricius Ház (Fabricius House) is a beautiful baroque mansion with exhibits on ancient city history: highlights include the remains of a Roman bathhouse and the 1,200-year-old Cunpald Goblet. The Storno Ház (Storno House) is Sopron's finest Renaissance-era building with a collection of furniture, porcelain, sculptures, and paintings belonging to the Stornos, a rags-to-riches dynasty of chimney sweeps-turned-art restorers. And the Fehér Angyal Patikamúzeum (Angel Pharmacy Museum) is a real-life 17th-century apothecary that now houses a collection of period pharmaceutical tools, books, potions, and lotions.

With its finely sculpted biblical reliefs, the column is a superb specimen of baroque design. It was erected in 1745 to mark the former site of the medieval Church of Our Lady, which was destroyed by Sopron citizens in 1632 because they feared the Turks would use its steeple as a strategic firing tower.

This beautiful Inner Town street runs south from Fő tér to Orsolya tér, where there's an interesting fountain showing Jesus using his crucifix to pierce a snake with an apple. As you walk down the street, you will come across an eclectic mix of architecture coexisting in a surprisingly harmonious fashion. The Erdődy-palota (Erdody Palace) at No. 16 is Sopron’s richest rococo building. Two doors down, at No. 12, stands the Eggenberg Ház (Eggenberg House), where the widow of Prince Johann Eggenberg held Protestant services during the harshest days of the Counter-Reformation and beyond. Today, it's home to the Macskakő Múzeum, an interactive children's museum about the everyday lives of people living in ancient times. But the street takes its name from Szent György templom (St. George’s Church), a 14th-century Catholic church so sensitively “baroqued” some 300 years later that its interior is still as soft as whipped cream.

Starting near the Fire Tower and following the route of Sopron's medieval town walls, the Bailey Promenade makes for a lovely stroll. The oldest part of city walls were built in the 14th century but some sights along the way are even older: look out for ancient gate foundations, remnants of the Roman town of Scarbantian. Some sections of the promenade close overnight.