Cím

Antenna

On arriving under the town on the 47 road, we can notice the iron neddle of the 240 metres high slim broadcasting tower. (It first broadcast the New Year's Eve programme of the television in 1959.) As a result of continuous technical development, it is a telecommunication service sector of high performance of the southern part of the Great Hungarian Plain.

At the joining point of Prince St. Imre street and Sándor Petõfi street, in front of the corner building of the primary school stands the Olympic Oak. In the Olympic Games in Berlin on 9 August 1936, Márton Lõrinc won the Games in bantam weight in Graeco-Roman wrestling. As he was not able to plant the pedunculated oak in his Transylvanian village, he offered it to Szentes and planted it here in 1937.

Several classicist, romantic and early ecclestic houses from the last century in the Sándor Petõfi Street (formerly Úri Street) are very important in the image of the town (no. 4., 5., 7-9., 11-14.). The classicist Pál Péter House (no. 9.) was built for a wine- merchant around 1830. It has a wagon-roofed cellar under its street wing. The Middle Class Home Museum, the local history collectionof the József Koszta Museum got place here. The collection includes relics of local history, applied and fine arts, history of music and literature, small scale industry and trade of agricultural towns. The permanent exhibition displays the relics of the middle class way of living in the 19-20th century such as the furniture of the assimilated Jewish family of Péter Pollácsek from the turn of the century, or the surgery and music-book collection of a doctor, Pál Ottokr Péter in seven rooms. In the cellar of the house temporary exhibitions and performances are organized. (Open every day from 13 till 17 o'clock, except for Monday. Tel: 316-678)

Kossuth  tér

Petõfi street ends at Kossuth Square. The square is a lucky mixture of old and new. The square got its name on the 90th birthday of the Turin hermit. (Formerly it was called the Main Square, then Market Square. The market moved to Apponyi Square in 1950.)

Lajos Kossuth accompanied by Mór Jókai and Pál Vasvári drove to the old Town Hall along Endre Ady street on 1 October 1848. He gave his greatly effective recruiting speech on the southern east part of the square, where his statue made by István Tót was placed in 1934. The statue was moved to its present place in front of the County Hall in 1974.

The buildings on Kossuth Square are the most typical ones of the town. At the corner of Sándor Petõfi street stands Petõfi Hotel of Art Nouveau style planned by Marcell Komor and Dezsõ Jakab in 1898. (2, Petõfi street.)

The theatre with 500 seats is called after the native József Tóth great character actor. His bust over the entrance was made by Antal Koncz.

Galéria

The square is blocked from the eastern side by a six-storey block of flats. On its first floor we can find the most important scene of local fine art, the Gallery of Szentes (no.5). In monthly rotating exhibitions of fine arts, applied arts, photography, ethnography and local history are shown. (Open from 10-13 and 15-18 o'clock every day except Saturday and Sunday.)

The most typical building of Szentes, the huge early classicist Calvinist Great Church, which was built from 1808 till 1825, stands on the northern side of the square. The lower part of its fire-watching tower with a circular gallery on the top dates back to about 1770. The medieval bell of the late church of Böld was placed here.

In Bálint Kiss Street (formerly Templom Street), which starts from behind the church, has several protected buildings (no. 1-12). The classicist Calvinist Parsonage built in 1836 (no. 2) gave shelter to Mihály Vörösmarty (a great Hungarian poet) during the years of the absolutism. Bálint Kiss (1772-1853), a Calvinist parson, whose name the street bears, was a polyhistor and a naturalist of his age.

The western side of Kossuth square is ruled by the dignified Neorenaissance building of the former County Hall (no. 1, Endre Makay, 1883). On the parapetof the projection the oval shield of the county with the statues of Justicia and Minerva can be seen. On the columns of the big windows we can see the allegorical women figures of the professions (of agriculture, domestic industry, sailing, hunting, trade and fishing). Today it houses the Archive and some other institutes.

In the Archive documents from the past three centuries of Csongrád County, Szentes and the former districts and communiities can be studied besides the significant collection of maps, posters and photos. The most valuable documents are displayed on a permanent exhibition.

The first artesian well of the town, which was the third well in the Plain, was bored in front of the former County Hall in 1885-86 under the supervision of Béla Zsigmondy. The well with a depth of 312 metres was decorated with a group of statues from France, which was pulled down in 1934.

The southern side of the square is dominated by the mansard roofed building with corner turrets of the Town Hall, which was built in 1911 according to the plans of Alajos Bohn. In the Palace of the Szentes Savings Bank, which join the Town Hall in style, among others we can find the Public Library (1, Petõfi street, 1928).

Emlékmû

A Kossuth térhez kapcsolódik a valamivel kisebb, szabályosan parkosított Erzsébet tér. Régebben Szent-háromság térnek nevezték, a nyugati részén 1886-ban felállított szoborról. Közepét az elsõ világháború hõseinek emlékmûve díszíti (Pásztor János, 1926). A déli oldalon látható katolikus általános iskolát 1912-ben emelték, magyaros szecessziós stílusban. Nyugat felõl a városi bíróság (1911) épületét árkádsor köti össze a katolikus plébániával. Ide torkollik a városnézõ sétánk elején már érintett Szent Imre herceg utca.

The smaller park of Queen Elizabeth Square is joined to Kossuth Square. Formerly it was called the Holy Trinity Square after the statue on the western side of the square, which was put there in 1886. The middle of the square is decorated by the WW I monument made by János Pásztor in 1926. On the southern side stands the Catholic Primary School, which was built in 1912 in Art Nouveau style. On the western side the building of the Town Court is linked to the Catholic parsonage by archades. Prince St. Imre Street, which has already been mentioned at the beginning of our sightseeing, ends here.

At the corner stands one of the most significant monuments of the town, the Roman Catholic St. Anne Church. There was a church here already in the Middle Ages, which was used by Calvinists during the Turkish occupation of Hungary. The Baroque church raised between 1764 and 1768 was pulled down in 1844, only the tower remained. It gained its present neoclassic form in 1847.

In the niches of the main facade the statues of St Joseph and St Peter can be seen. The seccos of its secessionist ceiling were painted by Béla Endre and Gyula Rudnay in 1910. The mosaic-like picture of the chancel depicts the Annunciation, while in the other pictures scenes of Jesus' life and the Wise Men of the East can be seen. The secco of the triumphal arch depicts the homage of the Hungarian Saints before the Holy Sacrament (Béla Terney, 1949).

Mihály Horváth Secondary Grammar School (2, Prince St. Imre street), which has a great past, stands beside St. Anne Church. It was built by Károly Benkó in 1888, then enlarged between 1915 and 1918 by Lajos Ybl. The secondary grammar school, which has been functioning since 1859, is the most elevated secondary school in Szentes. It teaches languages at high level, and its drama section, which was the first in Hungary, made it known all over the country. The full-sized picture of Károly Zolnay (1833-1925), the former director of the school and the organizer of secondary education in Szentes, hangs in the hall of the school. The portrait was painted by Géza Zolnay in 1926. In its front garden we can see the statue of Mihály Horváth made by Zsigmond Kisfaludy Strobl in 1934, which had decorated Kossuth Square until 1974.

On the opposite side of the road we can see the Rendezvous Well by István Máté (1991).

Liget

Let's go back to Qeen Elizabeth Square again and take a walk over the bridge of the River Kurca in Széchenyi Garden. The seven hectare shady garden was established on the island surrounded by the River Kurca and Veker. It was named on the occassion of the death of Széchenyi in 1860.

The middle part of the garden was converted into a botanic garden on the turn of the century. It is the public park of the town, and has been a nature conservation area since 1953.

Among its old trees the planes, horse chestnuts and ashes are valuable. Under them big- and little-leaf linden trees, mulberry trees and maples flourish. Among the evergreens, old yews, cipresses, black- and mountain pines are worth mentioning. There are sporadically old pedunculated oaks; some of them with a pyramid shape. On the banks of the River Kurca a row of hundred-year-old plane trees leads to the open air bath. In front of the garden, at the bridge abutment stands a WW II monument by István Máté (1989), while on the right at the entrance, the commemorative column of Széchenyi made by Sándor Pataki wood-carver.

From the entrance of the garden a straight route leads to József Koszta Museum, which celebrated the centenary of its foundation in 1997. The building was built in 1870 in late classicist style. Especially the collection from the era of the Great Migrations of the museum is well-known. It is the result of the excavations of an enthusiast and expert autodidact, Gábor Csallány.

The ethnographical collection of prominent worth preserves besides the memories of the trades of agriculture, watermiller, weaver, bluedyer and honeycake maker, a rich collection of the pieces of work of the once famous potters of Szentes. For the memory of the 425th anniversary of the market town's existence, a local history exhibition showing the life of the market town and an ethnographical exhibition introducing water life style and farming were opened.

35 pictures by József Koszta are displayed in a separated room.

Szobor

In front of the museum stands the statue of Zoltán Borbereki Kovács entitled Navvy, which was made in 1934, but after a lot of adversity it was placed to its present site in 1947.

Together with another piece of art, the artist won the Great Prize of Fine Arts at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.

(Open from 13 till 17 o'clock except on Monday. Tel: 313-352.)

Strand

Next to the museum there is the colourful open air bath providing a number of possibilities. Szentes was the first town among the market towns where a public steambath and a bath were built. They were built in the garden in 1868.

On the area of 71 thousand squaremetres of the open air bath 1,500 people can be hosted at the same time. It has a swimming pool cover with a tent in winter, a big swimming pool for only summer use and a circular paddling pool.

Its 28 Co water comes from a thermal well. All the other facilities such as the playgrounds near the swimming pools, the shady garder, bungalows, grassy ares for sunbathing and playing, a restaurant and a buffet all serve the comfort of the bathers. There are fishing facilities, a campsite, a football field, tennis and handball courts, too.

Let's go back the Elizabeth Square and walk in József Tóth street to the north. In a one storey building from the 19th century, under the number 26, was József Tóth, the most significant dramatic actor of the middle of the last century, born. He was a member of the National Theatre from 1850 till 1867.

The houses at 15 Jószef Tóth, 18 Ferenc Sima street and 2 Céhház street were built at the beginning of the 19th century and still preserve the atmophere of the old Szentes.

Fürdõ1

Fürdõ2

At the corner of Endre Ady and Ferenc Sima streets we can visit the Turkish bath-like thermal bath (44, Endre Ady street) built by Károly Dávid in 1962.

The temperature of the water in the big pool under the cupola is 35 Co, while the temperatures of the four small pools aournd the big one are different. The water of the bath is provided by the medicinal waters of 71 Co of a 1,735 metres deep well bored in the area of the nearby hospital. The thermal water with alcali-hydrogene-carbonate and fluoride are useful for the treatment of articular-, locomotor- and gynaecological diseases.

The statue of György Segesdy entitled Nude Woman (1963) stands at the side of the open air swimming pool.

Kórház

Szobor

The name of Batthyány Street opening from Ferenc Sima street reminds us of the fact that after the execution of the first independent prime minister of Hungary in 1848, Mihály Horváth, the famous native of Szentes was the foster of the Batthyány orphans.

The famous hospital of Szentes stands at the end of Ferenc Sima street (44-54, Ferenc Sima street). A suburbian barn was converted into hospital in 1861. For long decades it was the county hospital.

The one-storey main building was built in 1902. Later new pavilions were established. The 16-hectare park of the hospital, which was planned and formed in the 1930s, enjoys local protection. The sight of rare cipresses and ginkgos, the paths attracting for a walk across the River Kurca are said to bring half of the recovery. In the blooming park stands one of the most beautiful statues of the town made by Zsigmond Kisfaludi Strobl in 1959 and entitled "The Little Untamed".

The group of statues symbolizing curing in front of the surgeries is the work of Iván Paulikovics from 1987.

Opposite the hospital, in one of the former houses of Ferenc Sima street lived and worked István Drahos graphic and wood-engraver (1895-1968). Mainly his ex libri and woodcarvings are famous. He even planned stamps. His legacy is looked after in Koszta Museum.

In order to reach the eastern part of the town from Kossuth Square, we should walk down Kossuth Street. Right after the six-storied building, on the left we can see the oldest historic building of Szentes, the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. It was built in 1786 in Baroque style with beautiful iconostasis and wall-paintings from the same era, and with a fresco (László Kéri) depicting St. Nicholas in the outer niche of the church.

The 39 pictures of the stylezied iconostasis decorated with gilded leaves and rose heads are placed in three zones: the throne iconostasis on the bottom, advocates and praying figures surrounding Jesus above, and the Golgota cross-composition with the prophets on the top.

On the royal door the Greeting of the Message of Joy while

on the diaconal doors Michael archangel and the deacon picture of St. Stephen can be seen. Most of the iconostasis were made in Stefan Tenecki's workshop. The throne iconostasis depicting the Holy Mother with the Child and the Teaching Jesus are not only excellent pieces of the master's art, but of the whole group of Hungarian orthodox relics as well.

Tenecki was an outstanding painter of the second half of the 18th century. He studied at the art school in Kijev and had his workshop in Arad. He also painted pictures of wordly topics, and he painted the first oil pictures of the Kurut and pro-Austrian warriors of the Hungarian war of independence led by Ferenc Rákóczi.

In front of 5, Lajos Kossuth street the sculpture by Ferenc Kovács, while on the other side of the road in front of the Post Office Palace the attractive statue of Fortune by Valéria Tóth was raised in 1991.

The altar-piece of the neo-gothic Evangelic church (Imre Francsek, 1905) in Luther square was painted by the native László Hegedûs.

On the other side of the street, at the corner of a gradually formed six-storied row of houses, there is the memorial table of Mihály Horváth (no. 12). The famous son of Szentes, Mihály Horváth was born in the house once standing here in 1809. The relief was made by Miklós Borsos.

Mihály Horváth became a member of the Hungarian Academy at a young age, when he was 33. He was the bishop of Csanád from 1848, and the Minister of Religion and Education of the independent Hungarian government in 1849. He was the only prelate who followed the government to Debrecen. After the supression of the war of independence, he was hiding in the country, then escaped to Belgium. He returned home only in 1867.

Let's continue our walk down Kossuth street. After the bend, there is the synagogue (no. 35) on the right hand side of the road. It was built between 1868 and 1870 in Romantic style according to, probably, the plans of Ignác Knabe. It is ready for renewal. The commemorial column of József Koszta stands in the corner of the little park formed beside the synagogue. The relief of the column was made by Miklós Borsos in 1969.

József Koszta (1861-1949), who was a prominent figure of the Hungarian painting in the 20th century and one of the painters with the most individual style of the school of the Plain, was born in Brasso. He settled down on the farm of Felsõrét on the outskirts of Szentes in 1910, where he painted mainly realistic pictures with great expressiveness.

The depiction of the plain landscape and the peasant life is the best part of his life-work.

Apponyi square, until its building up in 1962, was the market square of Szentes. Today the square is surrounded by modern buildings. The monument of the Ground-man stands in the middle of the square (László Marton, 1969). A bit further the memorial tablet of Heinrich Böll on the building of János Bartha Gardening Secondary School (45, Lajos Kossuth street) can be seen. The German winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was a patient in the millitary hospital working in the Economic School in 1944.

Kossuth street continuing as Baross street leads to the railway station, where trains leave for Hódmezõvásárhely, Orosháza, Kiskunfélegyháza and Kunszentmárton.

There are some sights on the outskirts of the town as well, such as the Water Museum over the Obester housing estate on the right side of Csongrádi street. The still operating machines and apparatus of the former pumping plant were responsible for drainage and protection against floods. (Open on weekdays from 8 till 15 o'clock.)

Beside the 45 road leading to Szarvas, there is the 139-hectare lake established to store thermal water. The lake is suitable for water sports most of the time of the year. The establishment of a holiday resort and water-sport area is planned around the lake. The lake is a place of hatching and migration for water-birds.

On the banks of the rill Veker lay the former village of Ecser, which was first mentioned in 1138 as Ecer. Prince Álmos gave it with its 65 servants to the provostship of Dömös. The settlement became a Cumanian dwellings first, then a village. Later, in 1566 the Turkish-Tatar army marching on Gyula demolished it and it was not built up again.

We can approach the Ecser church 15 kms far away on the road from Szentes to Szarvas. It is a peculiar spectacle: storks nest on the top of it. The ruins of the church of the late village can be seen from quite a distance from the field of Ecser. The church must have been of great extent, its counterforted sanctuary connecting to the rectangular shaped nave was closed with three sides of the octogon.

The legth of the church is 15.75, the wideness at the nave is 8.57 metres.

The sizes of the bricks, the different techniques of walling, the circular ended Roman window above the southern entrance prove that the church also had a period of Árpádian ages. The early wallling was made by combined use of ashlar and brick. The only massive counterfort standing at the south-eastern corner of the sanctuary was built later. The ruins of the tower still stood in 1773. On the strength of the archeological excavation in 1961, the church may date back to the 14th century.