Letter from Pecs: Hungarians are fond of Pecs, a university town blessed with youthful energy, a plentiful supply of local wine and a warm ambience that they insist on calling "Mediterranean".
But a glance at a map and the history of Pecs suggest that the name of that distant sea - redolent of the glories of Western civilisation - is used here by Hungarians in place of another term that they are loath to attach to themselves: "Balkan".
Pecs lies close to Croatia and Serbia, some 200km south of Budapest, where a grand but dowdy palace gazes down haughtily onto the Danube, a monument to Hungary's time as frustrated minor partner in an empire run by the Habsburgs.
While the Austrians bullied Budapest, the Hungarians did the same to the southern Slavs and Romanians, residents of that notorious quagmire, the Balkans, and their distinct inferiors in the hierarchy of the Habsburg Empire.
That changed when Hungary was stripped of two-thirds of its territory for helping the Austrians and Germans lose the first World War, an emasculation it hoped to reverse by allying with Hitler, whom Budapest believed would restore former dominions in what are now Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Slovakia.
That was not to be, and the fate of the lost lands and Magyars stranded in "Greater Hungary" still resonates strongly through Hungarian politics.
Gazing towards Vienna, Budapest encapsulates many Hungarians' view that they are among the aristocrats of central Europe, a profoundly civilised people deposed by cruel and idiotic history from their natural place as leaders of an often-chaotic region.
But the origins of the Magyars are mysterious. They are believed to have migrated west in the 10th century from the banks of the Volga river in Russia, where some communities still speak a non-Slavic tongue that shares a few words with Hungarian. Other theories trace the original Magyars to the high mountains of central Asia.
Hungarians are proud of their exotic history and language, but also of the solid conservative values instilled by a Germanic influence strong here since Germans accepted the King of Hungary's invitation to repopulate areas devastated by a Mongol invasion in 1241.
That Germanic mark was ingrained by five centuries of Habsburg rule which fuelled the Hungarians' fascination and loathing for their imperial masters in Vienna and their disdain for their neighbours in the Balkan backwaters of the empire. And so many Hungarians are unwilling to be associated with the murky Balkans, a region with stronger reminders of Ottoman hegemony, a recent history of war in Yugoslavia, and a reputation for rampant crime and corruption.
And, perhaps, why most Hungarians choose "Mediterranean" rather than "Balkan" to describe the free-spirited atmosphere of Pecs, a city moved by a southern ease, warmth and spontaneity more evocative of Zagreb than Budapest.
It is in Pecs that Hungary's Ottoman past - most of whose physical legacy was obliterated - comes most keenly to life. In 1526, five years after seizing Belgrade, Suleiman the Magnificent beat the Hungarian army at Mohacs, near Pecs, to begin more than 150 years of Turkish domination.
The Pasha of Buda governed Ottoman Hungary, but many towns enjoyed broad autonomy and religious tolerance, while newly built mosques, madrassahs and libraries became centres of learning.
Probably the most striking remnant of Ottoman Hungary is the beautifully proportioned, copper-domed mosque in the middle of Pecs, which turns an elegant shoulder to the main square and sets its face towards Mecca.
It is one of the few reminders that Hungary was the high-water mark of the Turkish empire, as are Budapest's thermal baths, the tomb of the dervish poet Gul Baba, and the Magyar love of coffee houses and kifli, a pastry which - like the croissant in Vienna - was supposedly shaped like the Islamic crescent to celebrate eventual victory over the Turks.
Hungarians tend to deride their occidental streak, looking west towards their Habsburgian past, and turning their back on the Balkans whence the Turks emerged.
But things may be starting to change. Pecs will be a European City of Culture in 2010, with Istanbul, in an event that is likely to prompt a reassessment of Hungary's Ottoman era. On the promotional material that the city is already churning out, praise for its "Mediterranean" atmosphere is predictably prominent - but the B-word features too.
While stopping short of hailing Pecs's Balkan heritage, the city fathers do call it a "gateway" that can play a "mediating" role between Western Europe and the Balkans. Perhaps "Pecs 2010" will help Hungary see its own Janus-faced nature, give just weight to all the influences that have shaped it, and belatedly recognise that its place at a contested crossroads of Europe has not only been a bane, but a blessing.