no AUSTEIA^-TIUNGAEY. 



to the Austrian frontier, far exceeds it in population. Oedenburg occupies the 

 site of the Roman city of Scarabantia. It lies in the midst of a fertile district 

 extending to the Lake of Neusiedl. 



In the basin of the Drave there are a few commercial towns, such as Na(jif 

 Kanizsa (11,128 inhabitants), and one city, famous on account of its history, 

 namely, Pecs (Funfkirchen, 23,862 inhabitants). It lies at the foot of a group 

 of hills, and close to a rich coal basin. To the west of it rises the castle of 

 Szigetvar, which Zrinyi heroically defended against the Turks in 1566, when 

 Soliman lost 30,000 men and his own life. At Mo/utcs (12,140 inhabitants), to 

 the east, on the Danube, Soliman, forty years before, defeated the army of 

 Lewis II., but in IHST the Turks were there defeated in turn. Higher up on the 

 Danube is Duna-F'oïdvâr (12,382 inhabitants). 



The towns in the Carpathians are less populous than those in the plain, but 

 most of them occupy delightful positions in verdant valleys and on sparkling 

 rivulets. Tyrnau (Nagy Szombath, 9,737 inhabitants), with its many belfries, is 

 an old university town. Trencsén (3,449 inhabitants) has an old castle, formerly 

 looked upon as impregnable, but now in ruins. Near it are the sulphur springs of 

 Tei)la (Teplitz). Schemnitz (Setmeczbanya, 14,029 inhabitants) and Kremnifz (Kor- 

 moczbanya, 8,442 inhabitants) are two old mining towns : they were of greater im- 

 portance in bygone times. The former occupies a valley open to the cold northerly 

 winds. Several sulphur springs are in its neighbourhood, on the banks of the 

 river Gran, commanded by the ruins of the castle of the Sachsenstein, or " Saxon's 

 Stone." Neiisohl (Banska Bytrica, 11,780 inhabitants) is likewise a mining town, 

 almost exclusively inhabited by Slavs. None of the sixteen towns of the comitat 

 of Szepes (Zips), at the foot of the Tâtra, are of importance. Visitors, however, are 

 attracted by the charming scenery and the hot springs of Tutrqfured, or Schmechs, 

 near Kesmark (3,938 inhabitants). Kaschau (Kassa, 21,742 inhabitants), a tine 

 old city, and Unghvâr (11,017 inhabitants), are important market-places. Eperjes 

 (10,772 inhabitants) is associated with the " bloody assize " held towards the close 

 of the seventeenth century by order of the Emperor. Munkdcs (8,602 inhabitants), 

 a dull town, boasts of having been the first place at which the Magj'ars made a 

 halt before they descended into the plain. Szhjeth is the commercial centre of the 

 comitat of Marmaros, whilst Tokaj (5,012 inhabitants), with its sunburnt rocks, 

 Eger (Erlau, 19,150 inhabitants), and Gy'ôngyàs (15,830 inhabitants), carry on 

 the commerce between the mountainous country and the great plain of the Alfold. 

 In the vast plain of Hungary there are several populous villages, but few 

 places deserving to be called towns. Szeged (Szegedin, 70,179 inhabitants), 

 favourably situated at the confluence of the Theiss and Maros, is the com- 

 mercial centre of the Puszta. The floods of 1879 destroyed nearly the whole of 

 the town. Several other towns are likewise of some importance as places of 

 trafiic. Amongst these are Czegled (22,216 inhabitants), to the south-east of Pest ; 

 Szolnok (15,847 inhabitants), in the midst of the marshes of the Theiss ; Debreczeii 

 (46,111 inhabitants), the head-quarters of the Magyar Calvinists ; Nijirehàza 

 (21,896 inhabitants), a town almost exclusively inhabited by Slovaks; Szathmdr- 



