Szeged

City Hall

SZEGED, as cosmopolitan a place as you'll find on the Plain, straddles the River Tisza like a provincial Budapest. Much of its friendly atmosphere is thanks to students from the university, while the old city's eclectic good looks have been saved by placing the modern housing and industry over the river, in Ujszeged. Though Körös folk settled here four to five thousand years ago, and the town flourished after 1225 because of its royal monopoly over the salt mines of Transylvania, Szeged's present layout dates from after the great flood of March 1879, which washed away all but 300 homes and compelled the population to start again from scratch. With aid from foreign capitals (after whom sections of the outer boulevard are named) the city bounced back, trumpeting its revival with huge buildings and squares where every type of architectural style made an appearance.

Around the Belváros (City Center)

Heading southwest from Klauzál tér you'll emerge on to Dugonics tér, graced by a Water Music Fountain and dozens of students from the University who congregate here during their breaks. Overlooking the square, the university is named, by way of restitution, after the poet Attila Jozsef (1905-37) whom it expelled in 1924 for a poem which began "I have no father, I have no mother, I have no god and I have no country" and continued "with a pure heart, I'll burn and loot, and if I have to, even shoot". Attila's bitterness was rooted in childhood, when his mother - a poor washerwoman - died of starvation. Later he was expelled from the Communist Party for trying to reconcile Marx and Freudian psychology and, living in dire poverty, he finally ended his days under the wheels of a train at Lake Balaton. Though unappreciated during his lifetime, Attila's poetry now finds widespread favour.

University

Head on past the university, take a left turn, and you'll come to the so-called Black House on the corner of Somogyi and Kelemen utca. This Romantic-style edifice is actually painted brown and white, but the ironmonger who lived here in the nineteenth century always told peasants "You can find me in the Black House". After this brief detour, walk along Zrínyi utca and turn right to reach Dóm tér. 

Dóm tér

Aside from the university, the main object of civic pride in Szeged is Dóm tér, flanked by arcades with twisted columns and busts of illustrious Hungarians. This 12,000-square-metre expanse was created in 1920 by demolishing a network of backstreets, to accommodate a gigantic Votive Church which the townsfolk had pledged to erect after the flood. 

Built of brown brick in the neo-Romanesque style, its portal is surmounted by a statue of the Virgin whose image recurs inside the church in peasant costume, wearing embroidered "butterfly slippers". Visitors are dwarfed by the white, blue and gold interior, where the organ, with its 10,180 pipes and five manuals, benefits from superb acoustics. The eight-sided Demetrius Tower out in front dates from the eleventh century, but was largely rebuilt by Béla Rerrich, who designed the square. A chiming clock plays the folk song "Szeged, a famous town" at midday. On the north-eastern corner of Dóm tér stands an eighteenth-century Serbian Orthodox Church with a magnificent iconostasis framed in pear-wood. Banked opposite the Votive Church are rows of seats for Szeged's festival, where local operas are performed, some of them spectacularly melodramatic, for example one based on the life of Countess Báthori featured half-naked couples writhing in a vat of "blood".

 When performances (which start with every one standing for the national anthem) finish, the crowds flood out towards the Heroes' Gate (Hösök Kapuja), which links Aradi Vértanúk tere with Boldogasszony sugárút. 

Around the Waterfront and Széchenyi tér

By heading north past the Serbian church, you'll arrive at Roosevelt tér and the Móra Ferenc Museum. 

Its Neoclassical facade of columns and decrepit statuary cloaks a typical mix of "objets d'artand" artefacts of local significance, notably a huge painting of the flood. More interesting is the display on the Avars, the people displaced by the arriving Magyars. Behind the museum you'll find another smaller museum featuring a geological display of the city. The building is sited on the remains of a castle which in later times served as a prison for the outlaw Sándor Rózsa and for convicts who laboured on the river towpaths during the eighteenth century. As in Debrecen, this was a time of mass witch trials, when victims confessed to witchcraft under torture organized by the church elders. From here you can walk up west past the National Theatre to spacious, verdant Széchenyi tér, Szeged's innercity park. On the far (western) side stands a neo-Baroque Town Hall, likened by the poet Mihály Babits to "a lace-covered young woman dancing in the moonlight". The two allegorical fountains outside known as "The Blessed and the Angry" - symbolize the benevolent and destructive aspects of the River Tisza. The town hall is linked to a neighbouring building by a charming "Bridge of Sighs", modelled on the one in Venice.

The Jewish quarter and beyond

One area worth checking out is the old Jewish quarter, south of Nagy Jenö utca. Dating from 1843, the Old Synagogue on Hajnóczy utca bears a plaque showing the height of the water during the flood the building itself is only open during the summer festival, when it serves as a theatre. Around the block on Gutenberg utca is the Secession-style New Synagogue, one of the largest in Europe and occasionally the venue for concerts of classical music. Its magnificent dome represents the world, with 24 columns for the hours of day and night, white flowers for faith, and blue stars for the infinity of the cosmos. The stained-glass windows illustrate texts from The Flora and Minerals of the Jews, by Rabbi Immanuel Löw, and scenes from Jewish life. 

Around the outer boulevard, to the south, parts of the Alsóváros or "Tower town" resemble a village, with ochre-painted cottages and rutted streets. This quarter was traditionally inhabited by paprika-growers, and centres around the Alsówárosi Church on Mátyás király tér, begun in the late fifteenth century. Its reworked Baroque interior contains the Black Madonna, a copy of the famous Madonna of Czestochowa, and the focus of attention during the reconsecration ceremonies at the annual melon harvest festival. 
Two busy outdoor markets, on Mars tér in the Rókus quarter, and Szent István tér between the inner and outer boulevards, are well worth a visit. To the north of the centre there's a zoo with a large collection of small monkeys and South American animals.

As a university town, Szeged enjoys a lively night scene with plenty of eating places and watering holes. The city is famous for its sausages and dishes such as "halászlé" (fish soup) and "halpaprikás" (fish in paprika sauce).