Szeged: the back story

About Szeged: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Budapest Editorial Team

Szeged, on the Tisza river near Hungary’s southern border, is a lively university city famous for sunshine, paprika, fish soup and Art Nouveau. Almost destroyed by a great flood in 1879, it was rebuilt with help from across Europe as a planned city of boulevards and squares.

The flood of 1879

In March 1879, the Tisza burst its banks and destroyed most of the city. Szeged was rebuilt with a ring of boulevards named after the European cities that had sent aid, including Vienna, Paris, London, Berlin and Brussels.

Art Nouveau Szeged

The rebuilt city has some of the finest Art Nouveau buildings in Hungary: the Reök Palace, a 1907 building with flowing lily ornament, now an arts centre, and the New Synagogue of 1903 by Lipót Baumhorn, with its glorious blue and gold dome.

After the flood, Szeged named its boulevards after the cities that helped rebuild it.

The Votive Church and the festival

The twin-towered Votive Church, built after the flood and completed in 1930, overlooks Dóm tér, where the Szeged Open-Air Festival stages opera, musicals and dance every summer.

Paprika and salami

Szeged is one of Hungary’s two paprika capitals, and the Pick Salami and Szeged Paprika Museum tells both stories. Szeged fish soup (halászlé) is a local pride.

Our advice: Szeged is about two and a half hours from Budapest by train; stay a night to enjoy the riverside and the cafés, and visit in summer if you can get tickets for the open-air festival.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Szeged: the back story before you go.