If you are interested in Art Nouveau architecture than Szeged Hungary should be on your list of places to visit. It is the kind of place we love because there is a lot to see, but it far enough off of the beaten path that the tour busses and cruise boats don’t make here. In fact neither of us had ever heard of it until we began researching our trip to Hungary and were not sure what to expect when we headed over in the morning.
In 1879 Szeged was struck by a catastrophic flood that destroyed over 90% of the buildings in town. The Austro-Hungarian government was determined to rebuild the town and did so to a new plan rather than trying to reconstruct the old town. As a result Szeged has wide avenues and since Art Nouveau was the fashionable style of architecture in that time it is full of striking Art Nouveau buildings.
Our first stop was the New Synagogue. The exterior is heavily influenced by Art Nouveau and is striking. It is much larger than we expected and reflects the strength of the Jewish population of the city at the turn of the 20th century.
We went inside and the interior was even more beautiful than the outside. We know very little about the architecture and the art of Synagogues but this one was as ornate as any Christian Cathedral, and prettier than most.
While we were inside a high school class was getting a guided tour in Hungarian. While we could not understand the tour we could access the front of the Synagogue where the Torah is kept which is normally roped off by tagging along.
We also provided a bit of comic relief for some of the students as I had lost sight of Ton, she was quietly trying to signal me, but I was oblivious. Finally a couple of the kids got my attention and pointed at Ton with big smiles.
We spent quite a while exploring the building as there was interesting art work around every corner. Over 50% of the Jewish residents were killed in the holocaust, and after WWII a large number of the survivors immigrated to Israel. For a long time after the war the building was used as storage, but restoration began in 2000 and they have done a wonderful job.
After the Synagogue we struck out to find one of the most famous of the Art Nouveau buildings called Reok Palace. The architect was influenced by the Spanish architect Gaudi who built the famous cathedral in Barcelona. Like Gaudi’s architecture it avoids geometric angles trying to mimic nature.
As we were walking the 20 minutes from the Synagogue to the Reok palace we were struck by what a beautiful city Szeged was. It was another city we had never heard of that was blowing us away.
When we arrived at the Reok palace we decided to enjoy a coffee and share a pastry. To continue to build on a special day the pastry was delicious. Ton decided to try another Melange coffee which is famous from Vienna. She declared it far superior to the Vienna one. We were falling for Szeged.
Our next stop was the Votive Church of Szeged. Three sides of the square the Church is built on house classrooms of the University of Szeged with the fourth side being the Church. The square is supposed to be the exact same size as St. Marks square in Venice but we are not sure why.
By this time we were just enjoying walking around Szeged. The weather was perfect. The architecture was to a very high standard and we were constantly pointing at not only government and religious buildings that were interesting, but ordinary apartments and office buildings.
Szeged is also home to a large and prestigious university. It was near the end of the semester and the kids were enjoying their Friday. In particular we kept running into students from the medical school who must be done for the year as they were having a great time heading to a party. At one point 4 horse drawn wagons full of future Doctors went by blowing off steam after finishing their exams by riding thru town accompanied by dance tunes and alcohol.
Just when we thought Szeged couldn’t get any more charming the fountains in front of the natural history museum started dancing in synchronicity to Beethoven’s 5th symphony. We were just walking by and were utterly charmed. We just sat down and enjoyed the music and the accompanying dance for 30 minutes.
We decided to take a break and headed back to François for some water and rest. We really appreciated that our weird campground was just across the bridge from downtown, and now we found it part of the charm of this town.
We headed back over to town for dinner and spent more time enjoying the architecture and the energy of the students. Today is the kind of day that makes any hassle we go thru while traveling worthwhile. It was a special day in a special place that we would never have known existed if we did not travel like we do.
