Baranya


Baranya

 

a megye (county) in southern Hungary, between the Danube and the Drava. Area, 4,540 sq km; population, 416,000 (1968). The administrative center is the city of Pécs. To the north are the Mecsek (height to 682 m), Zselic, and other hills; to the south and east are undulating alluvial depressions (part of the central Danubian plain). The Danube River flows in the east; to the south is the Drava, which forms the border with Yugoslavia. The landscape is forest-steppe. Baranya is an industrial-agrarian region. In 1966, 57,000 persons were engaged in industry. The most important branch of industry is the mining of coking coal (4.3 million tons in 1966), generally for the needs of the metallurgical combine in Dunaujváros. The coal is used by thermal electric power plants in Pécs and Komló. There is also leather footwear, food, tobacco, porcelain, woodworking, and metalworking industry. Intensive agriculture specializes in the production of wheat, corn, and barley in combination with orchards and vineyards. Cultivated land occupies 58.3 percent (1964) of the area of Baranya, orchards and vineyards 5.7 percent, pastures and meadows 15.4 percent, and forests 20.4 percent. Swine and meat and dairy cattle are raised. The port of Mohács is on the Danube.