Zsolnay Cultural Quarter

The largest project for ECOC Pécs is the complete transformation of the Zsolnay Porcelain Factory (built in 1851) into a new cultural quarter. The factory is well known throughout Hungary and Europe producing anything ceramic you can imagine from roof tiles to valuable works of art. The Zsolnay Cultural Quarter, designed by MCXVI Építészműterem Kft., displaces the active Zsolnay factory to an adjacent site, and adds an array of new public spaces in a campus-like layout with heritage buildings, new contemporary spaces and public gardens. 

The Zsolnay Cultural Quarter will be home to a new gallery space for the impressive Zsolnay ceramics collection, spaces for the University of Pécs Music and Art departments, a new contemporary and modern art museum, a children’s museum and a permanent home for the renowned local Bóbita Puppet Theatre. 

All of the capital projects as part of the ECOC Pécs total $178 million Euros, $45 million of which goes to the Zsolnay Project alone. Eighty-five percent of the funding is provided by the European Union, five percent by the federal government and ten percent by the City of Pécs.