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Siofok - Culture |
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It is a real tourist centre with a line of great hotels and long beaches where the visitor is awaited with Hungarian style chardas, international restaurants and discotheques. Siofok has a lot of shops, department stores and an open-air theatre where you can see folklore programs or pop concerts during the summer. At the end of the World War II the settlement was badly damaged. The front-line lasting here for two months destroyed or damaged a number of buildings, villas, hotels, family houses, the ship-yard. By destroying the road and railway bridge it made the reconstruction works extremely difficult. After 1948 the settlement started to develop in another direction. Siofok became the centre for holidays organized by companies and trade unions. Its reconstructed summer houses, hotels and the new canalisation, sewage system the new water works have made the site the biggest and most important resort receiving crowds of people every summer. The town itself is an open-air exhibition with its sculptures and monuments on public squares. (Among others one of the greatest Hungarian contemporary sculptor, Imre Varga who was born at Siofok, exhibited his sculpture of Imre Kalman, titled "Vanishing Time".
Today Siofok is one of the most important tourist centres, as it is said: "Siofok is the capital of Lake Balaton." It has been made capital by its public transport of high level and its shallow shore offering safe bathing to holiday-makers. Besides the mild water of the lake visitors coming here may enjoy the organized programmes and the Hungarian hospitality as well. The hippodrome was constructed in 1900 with its grand-stands for 1500 people and the targets of the Balaton cross-swimming race were also set here. The swimming and tennis concours held each year also added to the richness of the summer events at Siofok. Due to its busy resort life, Siofok became a popular spa for artists, actors and the upper-middle class of Budapest (Karinthy, Krudy, Latabar). At Siofok, the Cultural Centre of the South Region of Lake Balaton is the biggest cultural institute of town. It is in the centre of Siofok, close to Water Tower on the main square. On the square, in front of the building, one can see the group of statues named "Venus' birth", made by the world-famous Hungarian sculptor, Imre Varga. The Cultural Centre including an air-conditioned auditorium with 480 seats, is excellent for theatre performances, conferences and other cultural events. Due to the technical facilities, like equipment for simultaneous interpretation, it is well suited for international conferences, too. From autumn till spring it invites the local inhabitants for various cultural events while in the summer, as well as in the early- and late-season it offers attractive cultural programmes of high niveous for tourists coming from all over the Continent. |
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Siofok looks back to a rich past. Its name has already been mentioned in the 11th century, in Foundaion Letter of Tihany Abbey. The life of our town is determined by tourism, we lay a great stress on the high level of services. Wide range of hotels,
apartments, campings, beaches, sport facilities.
In
addition to the historic buildings, some modern churches offer an exciting sight
by their queer architecture. Due to the development in recent years the town has
become a site of flowers and parks. An outstanding park in town is the
Millennium Park in front of the railway station. 