It is truly an honour to be the emblem of a city, and I appreciate this position. I am the Fire Tower, the emblem of Sopron, the "Most Loyal City". Anyone interested in the history of this city could not choose a better starting point for their studies than me. First of all, thanks to my height of 58 meters, I have a wonderful panoramic view of the whole of Sopron, the Lővérek, and sometimes even the Alps that range across neighbouring Austria. My foundations were laid by the ancient Romans who founded a city called Scarbantia here, which was an important trade centre. Then came the Hungarians, among whom was a count called Suprun whose name the city of Sopron took. The settlement's choice location meant many armies and empires were interested in acquiring it. The Czechs, the Habsburgs and the Turks all came – it would be difficult to list all the attacks. In the meantime, I steadily grew in stature. I got my square base in the 13th century, followed by my cylindrical body in the 14th century, and I acquired my present shape with its round balcony and its helmet in 1681. But I haven't told you why Sopron got its "Most Loyal City" title. Well, in connection with the border settlement that formed part of the 1921 peace treaty after World War I, Sopron and eight villages were able to decide in a referendum whether to belong to Austria or Hungary. Sopron voted for Hungary, which is why the Parliament awarded it the title of "The Most Loyal City" in 1922. However, the 20th century had one more serious historical moment in store for our city. On August 19, 1989, the so-called pan-European picnic was held nearby, which then led to the dismantling of the Iron Curtain that stood between Hungary and Austria.