Szeged

The city of Szeged, situated at the confluence of the rivers Tisza and Maros, is also known as the "city of sunshine" because the annual number of sunshine hours exceeds 2100.

Because of its favourable location it has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Its name is first mentioned in a charter in 1183 in connection with salt trade. It acquired its city status before 1247 and became a free royal city in 1498.

On 12 March 1879 the Tisza flooded the city. Today's unified cityscape was created during the years of reconstruction at the turn of the century.

Szeged acquired international recognition in 1937, when Albert Szent-Gyögyi received a Nobel Prize.

World-famous products originating from here include the inimitable Pick salami and the Szeged red paprika which provides a fine taste to Hungarian dishes such as Szeged fish soup.

Several of the town's most famous buildings are situated on one of the finest squares in the country, Dóm Square (which, you may be interested to know, is the same size as St. Mark's in Venice): Votive Church (pictured above), with a mosaic of the Madonna in the sanctuary dressed in a long embroidered felt cloak and Szeged slippers, this vast neo-Romanesque edifice was completed in 1930, funded by those who escaped the flood. The five-board, 10,000-pipe organ is the key instrument at organ concerts frequently organised in the church.

Dömötor Tower is all that remains of a 13th century church.

Famous figures in the Musical Clock appear following the noonday peal of bells, and in the summertime the square hosts the Szeged Open-Air Festival.

The most outstanding art history work in the nearby Serbian Church is the Rococo iconostasis with 80 icons and perforated lace-like decoration carved from pear wood.

The New Synagogue, a monumental Moorish Art Nouveau building, is one of Europe's most beautiful Jewish places of worship.

The magnificent atmosphere of its interior is provided by the white-gold-blue decorative elements and windows and the splendid glass cupola representing the universe.

No bigger church was built on the Great Plain in the Middle Ages than the Szeged Alsovaros Church And Monastery: 15th century late Gothic. Its icon is a copy of the world-famous original in Czestochowa.

The Virág Confectionery is the centre of town life in the summer, location for meetings and performances.

The Ferenc Móra Museum is home to an Avar age archaeological display, fine art, natural history and pharmacy exhibition, the folk art of Csongrád County, and the memorial exhibition of the great Hungarian writer and museum director Ferenc Móra (1879-1934).

The Castle Museum-Lapidarium is a local history exhibition which is staged in the only surviving part of Szeged Castle demolished in 1882.

The Szeged Salami Factory Historical Collection takes the visitor through the entire process involved in manufacturing the world-famous Pick salami.