Page 11 - Békéscsaba 2019

St. Stephen’s Square

the heart of the county

In 1718, there was a shadoof with a bucket in the centre of Gothic-style building attained its present form in 1910.
Csaba, surrounded by the huts of just 22 Hungarian fami- By the summer of 2013, the renovation of Békéscsaba’s ma-
lies. On one August day, nearly 700 Slovak colonists arrived in square, the Szent István (St. Stephen’s) Square, was comp-
on horse-drawn carts from ten counties of Upper Hungary leted and the statue of St. Stephen was consecrated in 2018.
at today’s St. Stephen’s Square. In the centre of Békéscsaba, there are two Lutheran church-
Today, the Town Hall stands in the centre of the square, es facing each other. Th e Great Church is the largest Lu-
which was built between 1871 and 1873 according to the theran church in Central Europe, built from the public do-
plans of Ernő Sztraka, the main architect of the town, and its nations of the inhabitants. The church is grandiose, with a

romantic façade was designed by Miklós Ybl. Opposite the seating capacity of 4,000, a height of 80 meters (as tall as a
Town Hall, the Fiume Hotel and the former Réthy Pharma- 30-storey house), and the thickness of the walls reaches 2
cy are located. To the west, a mansion and Saint Anthony of meters at its foundation.
Padua’s Cathedral are found; the church is a typical sight of
the cityscape of Békéscsaba. The red-brick, two-tower, neo-

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