Siklos Castle

With 10,875 inhabitants Siklós is the southernmost town of Hungary. The castle, its most significant historic monument, was first mentioned in documents in 1294. Siklós is one of the most intact and homogeneous historic complexes in Hungary. Almost all epochs of the history of architecture: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque can be seen here. The most outstanding examples are the chapel and the closed balcony on the southern facade. Count Kázmér Batthyány, foreign minister of the Kossuth Government is buried in the chapel. The statue in the garden portrays Dorottya Kanizsai, a former mistress of the castle, who had the victims of the Battle of Mohács buried. The reconstructed Bey Malkocs djami was granted the Europa Nostra award in 1994. The Serbian-Orthodox church with a unique iconostas can also be seen. The baroque Franciscan shrine and church with its Gothic sanctuary is a famous place of pilgrimage. Exhibitions in the town include: Castle Museum, Town Gallery, Ceramics Studio, local history exhibition. There is an open-air bath in the town. Siklós is extremely rich in sculptures and memorial tablets. In one of the centres of the Villány-Siklós Wine Road visitors are welcome to taste the excellent wines. The medieval parish church with the adjoining monastery stand on the south-eastern part of the Castle Hill. The church, originally built at the beginning of the 14th century for the Augustinian "surpliced canon" then rebuilt several times and finally, after the expulsion of the Turks, it was given to the Franciscan order. Experts' opinion about the studied and restored frescoes is that "both as a whole and in the fineness of detail they are the most exquisite group of Gothic frescoes in medieval Hungary". In the sanctuary the red marble monument of palatine I. Miklós Garai can be seen. Today the monastery is a Ceramics Studio with a permanent exhibition section.

The history of the devotional church of Siklós -Máriagy?d goes back to the Roman times. In 1805 Pope Pius VII officially declared it as a place of pilgrimage.