Szentgotthárd

Szentgotthárd stands in the far west of Hungary, where the Rába River crosses the border into Austria. The town grew around a Cistercian abbey founded in 1183, and its name still honours Saint Gotthard of Hildesheim. In 1664 an Austrian army under Raimondo Montecuccoli won a battle here that forced the Ottomans to accept the Peace of Vasvár. A later uprising in 1705 saw Rákóczi’s rebels defeat Habsburg forces close to the same fields. During the Second World War Soviet troops took the town on 31 March 1945 as part of the Vienna Offensive.

The place is also a recognised centre of the Rába Slovenes, a Slovene-speaking community living along the river. Among its notable figures are Ágoston Pável, a Hungarian Slovene writer who studied here, and János Brenner, a Roman Catholic priest killed in the town in 1957. The hammer throwers Tibor Gécsek and Krisztián Pars both trained in Szentgotthárd. The painter Ferenc Joachim and the ethnologist Alajos Drávecz also came from the area.

Visitors find a quiet riverside town with the abbey church at its heart. The surrounding landscape is flat farmland bordered by gentle hills. The Rába’s banks offer gentle walks, and the local culture includes Slovene traditions alongside Hungarian life. The town’s modest size keeps it free of crowds, while its history is visible in street names and the abbey’s surviving walls.