Rác Street and Serbian Orthodox Church
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Transcript
Rác was a historical Hungarian term commonly used for Serbs, and this street preserves the memory of a Serbian Orthodox community in the city. Migration after the Ottoman wars reshaped towns across the Habsburg lands, bringing merchants, soldiers and families into places whose populations had been disrupted.
The Orthodox church and low houses reveal a different Fehérvár from the royal and episcopal centre. Urban communities could live close together while maintaining distinct religious institutions, languages and networks. It is better to see that as structured coexistence than as a romantic story of effortless harmony. Different groups shared a city, but they did not stop being different.