Pápa is a historical town in Veszprém county, Hungary, located close to the northern edge of the Bakony Hills, and noted for its baroque architecture. With its 32,473 inhabitants (2011), it is the cultural, economic and tourism centre of the region. Pápa is one of the centres of the Reformed faith in Transdanubia, as the existence of numerous ecclesiastical heritage sites and museums suggest. Due to the multitude of heritage buildings the centre of the town is now protected. Pápa has a large historical centre, with renovated old burgher's houses, cafes, and museums, including the Blue-Dyeing Museum (Kékfestő Múzeum), set up in a former factory which produced clothes and other textiles dyed with indigo blue under a unique method. The town is also noted for its thermal baths, particularly a newly constructed swimming complex, the Esterházy family's palace, its grand Roman Catholic church, and Calvinist secondary school; the town is an important religious centre. It also boasts a large park near the centre of town. The town has been the main center of trade in the wines of the Somló wine region. Pápa was an administrative regional capital from 1945 to 1983. History Pápa is a historic town first mentioned in records in 1061. It is possible that the town (originally a royal manor) was named after the kindred Pápa. Its importance and development is proved by the fact that in the 14th century the town was given civic privileges and at the beginning of the next century it became a market-town, which evolved from the 11 villages that occupied the current territory of the town during the Middle Ages. Large landowning families and various religious orders played an important role in the development of Pápa as a city: the Franciscans settled here in 1475 and the Paulists in 1638. In the late Middle Ages it was the most important centre of Protestantism in Transdanubia. Reformationist doctrines swept in at the start of the Reformation. The first Hungarian translation of the Catechism of Heidelberg was printed in 1577. After Sopron and Sárvár, this town became the third most important centre of Protestantism in Transdanubia. A Reformed Church school operated here as early as in 1531, which was later expanded with a faculty of theology and an academy of law. The castle of Pápa already stood in the 15th century, and in Turkish times it became part of the system of