St. Bartholomew’s bell tower

One of Europe’s most beautiful pasha mosques decorates the main square of Pecs. The congregation wanted to build a tower, a bell tower, a campanile. This would have resulted in a rather strange architectural formation if the congregation had been called to mass by the peal of a relatively high campanile standing by the mosque. The mosque was built from the stones of St. Bartholomew’s Church, which was founded in 1301. In the course of the archaeological excavations, the walls of the church’s sanctuary were found below the surface — now they are visible as sitting benches at street level. St. Bartholomew’s martyrdom demanded a sculpture and then came the idea of creating a sculpture composition, a bell sculpture, which rises like a tower while the bell ringing and then sinking to the size of a bell sculpture. This telescopic tower has become a tourist highlight of the city.