Ancient times-13th century In the Iron Age a hilltop settlement with a burial ground existed in the neighbourhood of Sopron-Várhely. When the area that is today Western Hungary was a province of the
Roman Empire, a city called
Scarbantia stood here. The site of its
forum is now the main square of Sopron. During the
Migration Period, Scarbantia was believed to be deserted. When
Hungarians arrived in the area, the city was in ruins. From the 9th to the 11th centuries, Hungarians strengthened the old Roman city walls and built a castle. The city was named in Hungarian after a castle steward named
Suprun.
Sopron County arose as one of the first
counties of the
Kingdom of Hungary. The county was established in the 11th century by King
Stephen I of Hungary during the foundation of the Hungarian kingdom and the organization of the
royal county system, with its administrative centre at Sopronvár (present-day Sopron), on the lands of the
Osl clan. In 1153, it was mentioned as an important city. 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.
Ladislaus rewarded Sopron by elevating it to the rank of
free royal town.
16th-19th centuries During the
Ottoman occupation of
Hungary, the
Ottoman Turks ravaged the city in
1529, but did not occupy it. Many Hungarians fled from the occupied areas to Sopron, and the city's importance grew. While the Ottomans occupied most of Central Europe, the region north of Lake Balaton remained in the
Kingdom of Hungary (1538–1867) (captaincy between Balaton and Drava). In 1676, Sopron was destroyed by a fire. The modern city was born over the next few decades, when
Baroque buildings were built to replace the destroyed medieval ones. Sopron became the seat of the
comitatus Sopron. The town was the seat of the
Ödenburg comitat near 1850. After the
compromise of 1867 and until 1918, the city (known with the dual bilingual name of
Sopron - Ödenburg) was part of the Habsburg-ruled
Kingdom of Hungary.
20th century to present , French and Italian officers arrive to control the voting districts on 14 December 1921. built in the 12th century. Following the breakup of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, ethnic Germans inhabited parts of four western Hungarian counties:
Pozsony (Pressburg in German;
Bratislava in Slovak/Czech),
Vas (Eisenburg),
Sopron (Ödenburg) and
Moson (Wieselburg). The German-inhabited parts of those counties were initially awarded to Austria in the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919). After local unrest and Italian diplomatic mediation in the
Venice Protocol, Sopron's status as part of Hungary (along with that of the surrounding eight villages) was decided by a controversial,
local plebiscite held on 14 December 1921, with 65% voting for Hungary. Since then Sopron has been called
Civitas Fidelissima ("The Most Loyal City", ), and the anniversary of the plebiscite is a city holiday. However, the western parts of Vas, Sopron and Moson counties joined Austria and now form the Austrian federal state of
Burgenland, and Pressburg/Pozsony was awarded to
Czechoslovakia. Sopron suffered greatly during
World War II and was bombed several times. The Soviet
Red Army captured the city on 1 April 1945. The city of Sopron and the village of
Sopronbánfalva began to stretch towards each other at the beginning of the 20th century, they unified in 1950 and since the areas have merged. Sopron and the village of
Balf unified in 1985. ==Wine production==