SZEGED

city with county status and the seat of Csongrd megye (county), southeastern Hungary. It is on the Tisza River, west (downstream) of its confluence with the Maros and a few miles from the HungaryRomaniaYugoslavia frontiers. It was a military stronghold and trade centre in the time of the rpd kings (10th15th century) and was sacked by the Tatars and the Turks. The city was replanned after the devastating flood of 1879, with concentric boulevards with radial avenues. It has since been protected by dikes. Ujszeged (New Szeged) is on the left bank opposite the main Tisza bridge. The large principal square, Szchnyi-tr, is flanked by the strikingly unusual neobaroque Town Hall (1883) and by public buildings. The oldest relics are the remains of the 13th-century Saint Demeter tower, discovered when an 18th-century church was demolished in 1924, and the Alsvrosi Templom in Alsvros (Lower Town). The city has a notable twin-spired Votive Church or Cathedral (191229), the Attila Jzsef University (1872), the Szeged University of Medicine (1872; refounded 1951), the Microbiological Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and a national theatre. It holds an internationally famous open-air summer concert season in the Votive Church square. Extensive industrial activity has developed since World War II (chemicals, glass, textiles, rubber, and furniture), while Szeged still is famous for its paprika and salami. Pop. (1983 est.) 174,000.