The General’s House
One building, three names: Lackner House, General’s House, Commander’s House. If a building is referred to by three names, it is proof of its significance. And the walls of the General’s House could tell you a lot...
The names of the Baroque building at 7 Main Square, which are still used today date from the 17th and 19th centuries. However, the past of the house is much richer than that. Archaeologists found a medieval residential tower attached to the courtyard wall of the house, and from the second half of the 15th century until the end of the century the town hall was located here. The Holy Crown, returned from Frederick III of Habsburg was most likely to be kept here in 1463. In the 17th century it was owned by Kristóf Lackner, the prominent mayor of Sopron, who left it to the town in his will in 1631 as the residence of the town’s respective military commander (general). The third name comes from the time of the French occupation in 1809, when it became the quarter of the commander (general) of the Napoleonic army.
The building with a rich past is also important regarding Hungarian literature history. Around 1490 the notary of the town, Johannes Gugelweit (János Gugelweit) wrote down the first fragment of Hungarian love poetry, the so-called "Sopron flower songs".
