Countryside Guides: Szeged

Every summer thunderstorms sweep across the sun-baked plains of southeastern Hungary, sometimes interrupting the outdoor classical music concerts hosted weekly in the large square in front of the Votive Church in Szeged. If it's just a shower, the audience of 4,000 might don plastic sheets to avoid leaving the notes of Bánk Bán behind, and it takes a downpour for the orchestra to lay down their instruments.

(Top, center) Monika Jones (bottom) Flickr Creative Commons

(Top) One of the Tiszta statue group by János Pásztor in front of the Town Hall symbolizing the sometimes calm and sometimes angry river. (Center) The Kárász utca pedestrian walkway leading through the city center. (Bottom) Sea foam water lilies decorate the Art Nouveau Reök Palace, a masterpiece by Hungarian architect Ede Oszadszki Magyar.

Indeed, Szeged's residents are no strangers to water. The city of 150,000 that straddles Hungary's second-largest river has for centuries endured overflows of water while muddling through intermittent long, hot droughts. An occasional summer rainstorm is but a puddle to a city that survived four months underwater. Key to the city's identity, and the visual highlights of the city center, is the great flood of early March, 1897, when a dam on the Tisza broke. Hundreds died, houses were swept away, and it took months for the city to dry out. Sweeping political changes in the region are humbled in the face of this natural disaster.

At the time, European cities rallied to help. Habsburg emperor Franz Joseph came and promised aid and beauty. Slowly, gratefully, the city was rebuilt. Streets were named after cities that helped: Paris, Vienna, London. The football field-sized Szeged Cathedral Square, where the summer music concerts are held, is said to have a foundation of prayers from citizens petitioning God for protection from dangerous waters. Across town, "the blessed and the angry" fountain in front of the Town Hall is a splashing reminder to respect the many faces of the river.

Afterwards, Szeged became a playground for budding Hungarian architects to try their talents. Art Nouveau in Szeged is said to rival Barcelona. And the city's gentle crescendos of flowers, spirals, and sea-foam water lilies bring a sense of dreamy nostalgia on every other corner. Particularly noteworthy are the Reök Palace, a masterpiece by Ede Oszadszki Magyar, and his Ungár-Mayer Ház, where barely-clothed tin women inhale together atop an elegant cupola. The three-floor building ushers walkers onto the main artery of the city, Kárász utca, a pedestrian walkway that intersects with the grand Klauzál tér which finishes with flair in front of the heart of Széchenyi tér, the Town Hall and the adjacent Bridge of Sighs.

Meanwhile, after the flood, the bishop of Esztergom donated 43,000 books to help foster education and culture in the city. His legacy, the historic Somogyi Library, is now part of the cornerstone of the city's cultural life, the University of Szeged. Every September the city's population swells as students arrive from across Hungary to buckle down and study subjects such as music, economy, languages and sciences in the city's halls, cafés, and beer gardens, among them the Grand Café and the Brno Restaurant and Beerhall. Famous alumni include Attila József, who used to live above the Virág Cukrászda. At the time, he hoped to become a secondary school teacher but was expelled for penning the poem that renounced his roots. Today, he's revered for his skillful way of using the Hungarian language, no matter his line "I have no father, mother, God or country." Fame did not come during his life and he committed suicide by lying in front of a train.

Geographically, Szeged is green, flat and walkable. Students and kerchiefed nénis alike ride bicycles with handbags and flowers stuffed into handlebar baskets. However, when students head home and shops close early, the city takes on a dizzying sleepiness. But check the back of paprika jars worldwide: Szeged, it seems, has made a mark on the world. Spicy or sweet, the piros invention is a source of great Hungarian pride and innovation. In 1928, Albert Szent-Györgyi, a local professor, isolated ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in paprika. For Szeged, paprika production is the centerfold of the local agrarian industry: visit the Pick Salami and Szeged Paprika Museum for a rather lackluster tour of the history of this far spicier cultural accoutrement.

Szeged has been settled for the past 5,000 years. The Castle Museum near the river showcases ruins that date to the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. A dip in the Anna Well thermal baths brings visitors back to Ottoman times, while the Black House and the Béró House are among the few remaining examples of pre-flood Romantic architecture.

Szeged hasn't been without dark days. During a drought in the Middle Ages, the largest witch-hunt in Hungarian history took place here. Twelve women and men were tried and burned for allegedly "selling the rain to the Turks." All that's left of these burnings today is a park called Witch Island. In more recent history, Heroes' Gate near Cathedral Square celebrates an interwar variant of Hungarian nationalism with a brilliantly appealing fresco. And the events of sixty-some years ago have left few Jews in Szeged to attend the Old Synagogue nor the larger and newer Great Synagogue, which is the fifth largest in the world. On the bright side, after a painstaking restoration, the Great Synagogue has been made into a large public museum for Jewish education, it is in the outer part of the city near the historic Alsóvárosi Templom. On the river banks looking out across the Belvárosi híd to New Szeged is a tribute to one of the world's finest musicians who is also of Hungarian-Roma ethnicity, Pista Dankó. His musical legacy is as ingrained in popular Hungarian folk music as George and the Dragon is in British history - though Szeged residents might be quick to point out that George was a patron saint to the Carpathian basin long before Crusaders imported his legacy to England.

To best enjoy the city, taste the waters of the Tisza with a bowlful of Szeged's famous fish soup flavored with local spicy paprika and sit back in an outdoor café in the center and allow the ornate street lights, Art Nouveau spirals, and stone pedestals evoke images of a rich history of water and rebirth. Then shift your gaze to the wooden benches, terracotta flowerpots and cafés that spill out onto the square - even in the winter - and let the Mediterranean mood and youthfulness that "the city of sunshine" is famous for take you by surprise.

Further Afield: Connected by bus to Szeged is the national memorial park, Ópusztaszer National Historical Memorial Park, which is named after a village nearby of the same name.

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