Two days is right for Szeged. Day one is the rebuilt centre on foot: Dóm tér and the Votive Church, the tower climb, the Reök Palace and the New Synagogue, with the boulevard palaces in between. Day two is water, either the thermal pools at Napfényfürdő Aquapolis or the Tisza bank and the botanical garden over in Újszeged. In July and August the cathedral square turns into an opera stage.
Szeged is the city Hungary rebuilt from nothing. The Tisza broke through in March 1879 and took all but a few hundred houses, and what went up in their place was a planned city of boulevards, squares and Art Nouveau palaces, paid for in part by other European capitals. The ring roads still carry their names.
The fourth largest church in Hungary and the building the whole rebuilt city points at. Work began in 1913 on a vow taken after the 1879 flood and finished in 1930, the dome standing 54 metres over a square laid out to the dimensions of St Mark's in Venice. The organ runs to 9,040 pipes.
The best Art Nouveau building in the country outside Budapest, finished in 1907 to Ede Magyar's design and often read as Hungary's answer to Gaudí. Water lilies climb the green façade in plaster and wrought iron. Inside it is the regional arts centre, with shows that have included Picasso, Chagall and Goya.
Lipót Baumhorn's masterpiece, built between 1900 and 1903 and the second largest synagogue in Hungary at 1,340 seats. The dome rises 48.5 metres and is glazed blue and white, so the room reads as open sky. Art Nouveau, Gothic and Historicist detail sit together without arguing.
The county museum, in a domed neoclassical block on the Tisza bank. Permanent rooms cover the archaeology of the Great Plain, the ethnography of the river villages and regional fine art, and the temporary shows are the largest in southern Hungary.
Szeged sits on thermal water, and this is where the city puts it to work: 4,400 square metres of pools fed by the Anna and Dóra wells, plus thirteen slides adding up to a kilometre. It is a four-season water park with a medical wing attached, not a heritage bathhouse.
Sandy pine woodland on the northern edge of the city, and one of the largest zoos in Hungary. The walking distances are long by design, since the enclosures are sized for the animals rather than for the path, so plan half a day rather than an hour.
The oldest thing in Szeged: an 11th-century Romanesque base that outlived the flood and was rebuilt in 1931 into the small octagonal tower beside the cathedral. It marks where the medieval parish church stood, which is the only trace of the pre-1879 city left on this square.
Fellner and Helmer built it in 1883, four years after the flood, in the eclectic and neo-baroque manner they used across the empire. The horseshoe auditorium seats 680 under a ceiling painted by Zsigmond Vajda. Opera, drama and ballet all run out of the same house.
Szilárd Zielinski built it in 1904, one of the first reinforced-concrete water towers in Europe. The style is geometric Art Nouveau rather than floral, and it is the reason this square out in Felsőváros is worth the tram ride.
Two of the things Szeged sends out into the world, explained in one small factory museum on the Tisza bank: the dry-cured Pick salami, and the paprika milling that made the city's name. The window is narrow, Tuesday to Saturday afternoons, so it needs planning.
Open since 1967 and the city's long-standing formal room, with a carte past thirty dishes.
Central, on Roosevelt tér, with the downtown bridge in the window and fish soup on every table.
Named for the Fehér-tó fish ponds northwest of town, which is where much of the catch starts.
The modern option downtown, a small bistro kitchen with rooms above and a Hungarian wine list.
Craft beer and a grill, in a courtyard. The best list in town if you are done with láger.
At the foot of the downtown bridge, for boiled ice cream, cakes and a coffee on the river side.
Built around 21 May, the day Szeged won its free royal city charter. The 2026 edition runs 21 to 31 May.
One evening, 20 June in 2026, with the Móra Ferenc, the Black House and the castle museum open late.
Opera and musicals staged on Dóm tér since 1931. The 2026 season runs 4 July to 22 August, its 95th year.
The university botanical garden opens its lotus pond, the largest open-air Indian lotus collection in Central Europe.
One of Hungary's oldest music festivals, four days on the Tisza bank. 2026 dates are 26 to 29 August.
First weekend of September, and the centrepiece is a 5,000-litre cauldron of fish soup on the riverbank.
In its fifth decade, and the reason to be here in November. The 2026 dates are 6 and 7 November.
Dóm tér from 27 November to 24 December, with more stalls on Dugonics tér and Klauzál tér.
The nearest major airport. Trains for Szeged leave Budapest Nyugati, which is reached from the airport via Ferihegy station, and the fastest run south takes about two and a half hours.
Szeged station is the southern end of the Cegléd line, ten minutes by tram from the centre. Direct trains from Budapest Nyugati run all day, and the MÁV app sells tickets cheaper than the counter.
Szegedi Közlekedési Társaság runs four tram lines over roughly 23 km plus the trolleybus network. A single bought from the driver costs 650 HUF, so buy at a machine or a kiosk instead.
The city's fish soup: mixed Tisza fish, hot Szeged paprika, and no roux anywhere near it.
Fish cracklings, catfish trimmings fried in flour, breadcrumbs and paprika. Ordered alongside the soup.
Milled here since the 19th century and the reason the soup is that colour. Sold sweet or hot.
The dry-cured pork salami made on the Tisza bank and exported under the city's name.
Catfish in a paprika sauce, usually with pinched pasta. The other half of any fish inn menu.
Carp fried in slices. The plainest thing on the menu and the fairest test of the kitchen.
Cabbage leaves rolled around pork and rice, stewed with sauerkraut and finished with sour cream.
Peppers, tomato and onion cooked down with paprika sausage. Summer food, from the paprika belt.
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