GYOR, a well-built Hungarian town, capital of a county of the same name, situated at the confluence of the Raab with an arm of the Danube, with the main stream of which it has com munication by river steamers. The town occupies the site of the Roman Arabona and has always been an important regional centre and in earlier days a powerful fortress which the Turks captured by treachery in but retained for four years only. Throughout history it has been regarded as the key to passage east and west as is exemplified by the French storming in 1809 and that by the Austrians in 1849. In the nth century the town was made a Roman Catholic bishopric and its fine cathedral dating from the 12th century in origin, though rebuilt in has gathered around it many important expressions of spiritual leadership, e.g., the seminary for priests.
The modern functions are based upon its position at the con tact of the old alluvial plain and the drained marshes, and mixed farming has originated an active trade in cereals and horses, which is supplemented by milling, textile manufactures, linen and wool, and the distillation of spirits. Pop. (1930), 50,881. About II m. S.E. of Gyor on a spur of the Bakony Forest, lies the famous Benedictine abbey of Pannonhalma (Ger. St. Martins berg; Lat. Mons Sancti Martini), one of the oldest and wealthiest abbeys of Hungary. It was founded by King St. Stephen, and the original deed from IOOI is preserved in the archives of the abbey. The present building is a block of palaces, containing a beautiful church, some of its parts dating from the 12th century, and is situated on a hill 1,200 ft. high. In the convent there are a seminary for priests, a normal school, a gymnasium and a library of 120,000 volumes. The chief abbot has the rank of a bishop.