Sixty kilometres from Vienna - on the border between Austria and Hungary, in the north-western corner of the Hungarian map - sits a town the tourist catalogues rarely highlight. Sopron, in Hungarian Sopron, is the story of a town that isn't a Central European marketing product. It's a medieval place with Roman roots, vineyards and a precisely accurate history of loyalty that in 1921 chose to stay Hungarian - at a moment when nothing was obliging it to.

The main building is the Fire Tower (Tűztorony) - 58 metres tall, built in the 13th century, with 200 steps to the viewing platform that looks out over the whole flat landscape and the vineyards that surround the town. From there you can also see over 1,500 hectares of wine country - production mostly of white varieties like Veltliner, and the red Kékfrankos („grey-blue"), a name that goes back to the Napoleonic occupation.

The main square is an architectural feat all on its own. The Holy Trinity column from 1701 is the oldest votive column in all of Hungary. On the same square stands the Goat Church (Kecske templom), a 13th-century temple with a Gothic façade and a Baroque interior - it got its name from the city legend that it was built with money from a rich shepherd. Further on, one of the three medieval synagogues in Europe that still have a tripartite structure is right here.

Sopron was founded on top of the Roman settlement Scarbantia, and was historically a key point on the Amber Road - the trade route that linked the Baltic with the Mediterranean. And unlike many other Hungarian cities, the Ottoman-Habsburg wars did not leave deep wounds here. The architecture is almost untouched. On the streets you can see Storno Palace - a Baroque residence turned museum, the modernist Petőfi theatre, Roman amphitheatre remains, and streets shaped like a horseshoe around the old town.

Why did this town get the epithet „the most loyal city"? Because in 1921, in a plebiscite, the citizens refused to join Austria and chose to stay Hungarian - even though geographically and culturally it could easily have gone the other way. After that vote, the Gate of Loyalty was built. A gesture you rarely see in European history - people go to vote for who will be their boss. And they pick the more complicated side.

For Balkan readers, Sopron is reachable. One hour by car from Vienna, or a direct train connection for the slow-travel crowd. Unlike Budapest which is over-photographed and saturated with Airbnb, here you can still find a restaurant where the owner will himself recommend what to order. The local beer Soproni has been brewed since 1895 - as old as many cult Alpine brands. The vineyards take visitors without needing a booking two weeks in advance.

It's a place for the reader who wants to find a Hungary without the brocade of the tourism industry. And for the reader thinking - „why would I travel five hours to find something similar to what I have two hours away"? Sometimes the answer isn't in the difference of destination, but in a slightly different angle of looking.