Travel in Szeged - Hungary - Ungarn - Europe - History

Szeged - History

The historic city of Szeged is the centre of the southern part of Hungary and is located very close to Yugoslavia and Romania. It was developed on the W bank of the river Tisza that served as a defence barrier as well as a waterway, which gave Szeged a great advantage to develop a salt market. It is the world’s youngest river; the present bed is hundred years old. There was a time when its flow, demolished Szeged hardly hundred years ago. Today the Hungarians impede the rivers by canals and dams.

The area of Szeged has been inhabited since Roman times. During the period of the Great Migration, the fifth through the ninth centuries, it was a meeting place for various tribes. The town declared as a Royal town about 750 years ago by King Bela IV and is full of culture & beautiful buildings. Szeged was an important monastic centre in the later Middle Ages; witness to this is the beautiful Gothic Franciscan church and monastery, founded under King Matthias in the 1470’s.

The Turks occupied Szeged during the 16^th and 17^th centuries and it served as an administrative centre for the Ottomans. In 1719 the town regained its free royal rights and in 1721 a famous grammar school was established here. In the Reform Period, begun in 1825 and associated with Istvan Szechenyi and Lajos Kossuth, the development of the town accelerated. Industrial works and banks sprang up and at the same time, the ever-improving highway and railway systems of the country reached Szeged.

The War of Independence was in 1848-9. In the second half of the 19^th century citizens of the town and surrounding area made efforts to populate the steppe-like region, to make agriculture thrive and to develop areas within the town itself.

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