Szeged - St Demetrius Tower Dömötör torony

This tower is of particular significance because it was the only medieval historical monument to survive the catastrophic floods of 1879. The lower, square part of the tower originates from the period when the first Demetrius church was built in the 12th C, the octagonal part of the tower was a 13th C addition. The tower, incorporated into a new building, only came to light in the 18th C with the redesigning of the cathedral square when the ruins of the Baroque cathedral were cleared.

It was restored and rebuilt as a baptistery to a design by Béla Rerrich. In the tympanum of the porch a Romanesque relief (12th C) of the Agnus Dei was transferred from a church in the neighboring village of Kiskundorozsma, now incorporated into Szeged. The interior of the chapel is decorated with paintings with historical themes by Vilmos Aba-Novák (1894-1941).

In 1935 the Szeged watchmaker Ferenc Csúri completed the clock for the cathedral square. On the hour figures of well known statesmen, writers, former rectors and deacons of the university appear to the sounds of a tuneful melody.