The visitor arriving in Debrecen by train is greeted by the Railway Station. Debrecen's main railway line has a long history, dating back to 1837 when a certain Debrecen resident, Móricz Szitány, asked for permission to set up a railway corporation. His idea was that the carriages would be pulled by horses. Of course nothing came of this.

Petőfi Square

In front of the Railway Station lies Petőfi Square, named after our poet Sándor Petőfi. He tided over the hard winter of 1843-1844 in the house of an usherette, which stood on the site of today's station. The bombing of 1944 destroyed the house, on the site of which today's modern Railway Station was built. A memorial tablet in the right wing of the station and a statue of Petőfi in the Square - a work by Ferenc Medgyessy - are memorials to the poet. It is best to start exploring the town from Petőfi Square heading towards the Aranybika Hotel.

Iparkamara Street

On the left hand side is the tallest building of the town, a twenty-storey tower block.

Piac Street

The main street of the town became Piac (Market) Street during the late Middle Ages when commerce was blooming in Debrecen and markets were offering a wide variety of goods. The architectural face of the town began to take shape only at the beginning of the 19th century under the influence of classicism, and it was eventually formed by the beginning of the 20th century, influenced by secessionist and eclectic tastes.

The memorial plaque to Mihály Fazekas

As one can read on the memorial tablet on the wall of the house at No. 58 Piac Street, Mihály Fazekas, the author of Lúdas Matyi lived in the house that once stood here. The reliefs are the work of András Tóth, the father of the poet Árpád Tóth. They depict five scenes from the folk tale Ludas Matyi, plus one in remembrance of the friendship between Fazekas and Csokonai. A small memorial garden in Vármegyeháza (County Hall) Street on the site of the garden of the scientist-poet reminds us of Mihály Fazekas, the botanist. A Piac utca 58. számú ház falán látható emléktábla tanúsága szerint az épület helyén álló házban élt Fazekas Mihály, a Ludas Matyi szerzője. A dombormûvek Tóth Árpád apjának, Tóth Andrásnak a mûvei. A Lúdas Matyi öt jelenetét ábrázolják, egy pedig Fazekas és Csokonai barátságának állít emléket. Fazekas Mihályra, a botanikusra emlékeztet a Vármegyeháza utcán, a tudós-költő egykori kertje helyén kialakított kis emlékkert.

The County Hall

At No. 54 stands one of the most beautiful Hungarian buildings built in secession style. The house of the former Hajdú County Hall was built in 1911-1912 following plans by Zoltán Bálint and Lajos Jámbor.

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Miklós Street

Opposite the County Hall Miklós Street leads into Piac Street. It was named after the chapel of St. Nicholas (Miklós), which was erected in the 15th century by the Greek Orthodox settlers who moved into the town. At the end of the street on the right a memorial tablet proclaims that on this place once stood the gate of Miklós Street. On 7th January 1849 when the revolutionary government arrived in Debrecen, Lajos Kossuth entered the town through this gate. The warden of the gate wrote in the register: "Kossuth is the Moses of the Hungarians."

Mór Jókai, Zsigmond Móricz

Mór Jókai lived in the house at No. 9 Miklós Street in 1849. Despite being a Transdanubian, he adored the town, although he worked here as a journalist for just six months.

He depicted the old Debrecen and portrayed the provincial virtues and lifestyle of its citizens in many of his works such as: Emléksorok (Lines in Commemoration), Napló 1848-49 (Journal 1848-49), És mégis mozog a Föld (And Yet the Earth Moves), A debreceni lunátikus (A Lunatic from Debrecen), Kiskirályok (Petty Monarchs), Eget vívó asszonyszív (Woman's Heart Conquering the Skies) and Sárga rózsa (Yellow Rose). Zsigmond Miklós lived in the house at No. 12 Miklós Street when he was a student here between 1893 and 1894.

Commercial houses

At No. 57 Piac Street stands the house founded by the glass trader Endre Kaszanyitzky, and which opened its doors in 1852.

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Gambrinus Passage

From the shop-encircled passage, stairs and a lift lead underground to a shopping street. On the corner of the passage the pleasant flowery terrace of a pub awaits its guests.

Hungarian Secession

The house at No. 26-28 Piac Street, which was built in 1912-1913 according to plans by Károly Pavlovits, is typical of the Hungarian Secession style. The house, which stood on the site of the former Szikszay or Dobozi house and was converted from Bálint Török's manor-house, was the town's oldest stone building. It was here that the wife of Bálint Török waited in vain for nine years for her husband, who was imprisoned in the Seven Towers of Istanbul. It became the residence of the chief justice in the 17th century and it was from here that, together with others, the martyr alderman of the town Mihály Vígkedvû was accompanied on his last earthly journey. Around 1700 it belonged to István Dobozi, the famed chief justice of the Kuruts period (the period of the anti-Hapsburg wars at the beginning of the 18th century). A rich merchant bought it from the chief justice István Duskás at the beginning of the 18th century.

The First Savings Bank

The famed Fejérló Szálló opened its doors here at No. 24, when its old building became the Town Hall. Today the building no longer exists. By 1912 the town's oldest bank had been built on the site -the First Savings Bank of Debrecen, which was built in the secession style following the trend of the time. The stuccoes and statues of the facade are the works of Sándor Somogyi. The reliefs on the facade overlooking Piac Street display industrial, commercial and agricultural activities. Its brass portal was made in a famous workshop in Berlin and the inner faience works were supplied by the Zsolnay factory in Pécs.

The Church with the Truncated Tower

On the odd-number side of Piac Street around the Reformed Small Church, which is also called the Church with the Truncated Tower (Csonka templom), lies Révész Square, which was named after the famed Protestant ecclesiastical historian of the past century, Imre Révész.

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Széchenyi Street

Széchenyi Street leads off from Piac Street starting at the Small Church. The street formed in the 15th century was originally called Német (German) Street because the German traders coming to the markets lived here. It was named after the ‘Greatest Hungarian’, Ferenc Széchenyi at the end of the 19th century. Széchenyi, the most significant reformist politician of the 19th century, visited the town several times. As a young hussar officer he served in the regiment of colonel Simonyi. In 1840 he was in Debrecen because of the project to regulate the River Tisza.

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The Historical Balcony

The Szilágyi house stands at No. 31 Piac Street. From the balcony of this house Lajos Kossuth gave an passionate speech to the people of Debrecen in 1849. The balcony has been demolished but on the wall of the building a memorial plaque honours Kossuth.

The Town Hall

The classicist Town Hall is one of Debrecen’s most characteristic buildings. Its predecessor was built in 1531 and housed the aldermen of the town. It was under repair for centuries until in 1802 the building’s fate fell into worthy hands: Mihály Pécsi made the first draft designs but there was not enough money for their implementation.

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The Coat of Arms

The first known coat of arms (1560) of Debrecen refers to the reformation: its main figure is a lamb holding a flag in its right leg while turning back to glance at the flag.

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The Tisza Palace

The town residence at No. 18 Piac Street, which was built according to the plans of Ferenc Povolny in the 1920s and 1930s in neo-classical style, is the headquarters of the Hungarian Railways Corporation. Between 1826 and 1893 the building temporarily housed the academy of music. The one-storey building was extended to two-storeys in eclectic style by Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza’s wife, and it was at this time that it got its name. The Alföldi House at No. 16 was built for the Alföldi Savings Bank (now the OTP-bank) in 1940 in neo-classical style. In front of the house stands a sculpture entitled ‘Debreceni Család’ (Family from Debrecen), a work by Pál Pátzay, and a fountain. Opposite it one can see the country’s most luxurious hotel, the Aranybika.

The Aranybika (Golden Bull) Hotel

The plot and stone house of the Bika (Bull) family, who had been living in Debrecen since 1536, was purchased by the town in 1690. In 1699 it was converted into an inn and a second storey was attached in 1799.

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Kossuth Square

The town’s coat of arms made of Italian glass-mosaic, a work by Tibor Cs. Uhrin, can be found embedded in the decorative pavement in the centre of the square. Close to this stands the statue of Lõrinc Szabó, which was made by János Lestyán Goda.

Next to the Aranybika Hotel one of the country’s biggest musical fountains can be seen, a work by Antal Pázmándy.

The Reformed Great Church (Nagytemplom)

The symbol of Debrecen is the Reformed Great Church. To use the words of Zsigmond Móricz: “…with its two massive horns like the bull of Hortobágy, it faces time…” Gábor Oláh compared it to a huge-sized resident of the town.

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The Organs

The original organ was built in 1838 by Viennese craftsman Jakob Deutsmann. Thirty years later the instrument was extended until it boasted 3,096 pipes.

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Made famous by history

In January 1949 during the 1848-1849 Revolution and War of Independence the government and Parliament were temporarily located in the provincial city of Debrecen because the advancing Austrian forces were already threatening the capital.

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The Memorial Garden

Behind the Great Church lies the ornamental Memorial Garden. The Memorial Garden Society, which was formed in 1861, came up with the idea of creating a garden here: “Because Debrecen is bereft of such natural elements as rivers, mountains and stones, these must be substituted by trees, bushes and flowers, which are also the gifts of nature.” The plan laid down that in the square “should stand such dignified statues which are erected by grateful generations of different eras in remembrance of the great figures of the past, who achieved something notable for the nation or in the field of the arts and sciences.”

The Reformed College (Kollégium)

For more than four and a half centuries the life of the city was entwined with the Reformation, so the Reformed College, which was also called the ‘school of the nation’, had a distinguished role in the city’s history. The College was already active by 1538, its intellectual foundations laid by professors who studied in the universities of the Netherlands, Germany and England.

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The Central Library

With its stock of half a million books the Central Library of the College is the biggest collection of the Hungarian Reformed Church. Some of its rarities are unique examples, not only in Europe but in the whole world. 39 codices were written on parchment in the 1300s and 1500s. The Library keeps 146 old printed works or incunabula, 114 unique works that have been preserved in only one copy and some 1,600 rarities from Hungarian literature before 1700.

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The Archive

The Archive evolved from the Central Library in the middle of the 1700s, when the official documents were separated from the other material of the library. Its two thousand-metre long material is of inestimable value.
The School History Museum in the College.