Storno House

Lonely Planet review

Across the square in which the Firewatch Tower stands is Storno House containing exhibits of the Sopron Museum. On the 1st floor of this building, built in 1417, there's a less-than-enthralling exhibit on Sopron's more recent history, but on the floor above is the wonderful Storno Collection (Storno Gyűjtemény), which belonged to a 19th-century Swiss-Italian family of restorers whose recarving of Romanesque and Gothic monuments throughout Transdanubia is frowned upon today.

To their credit, the much maligned Stornos did rescue many altarpieces and church furnishings from oblivion, and their house is a Gothic treasure-trove. Highlights include the beautiful enclosed balcony with leaded windows and frescoes, leather chairs with designs depicting Mephisto with his dragons, and door frames made from pews taken from 15th-century St George's Church on Szent György utca. Franz Liszt played a number of concerts in this house in the mid-19th century.