Culture and sporting events in Szeged

Szeged provides a full-season cultural program, the "Collegium Artium," which is a wide-ranging series of lectures on various topics of art, literature and music. Concerts are held in the courtyard of the City Council building from time to time to satisfy local music lovers. Also during the summer, fashion shows are occasionally held on the Klauzál square.

The city hosts many fairs during the year. On the Dóm square an arts and crafts fair is usually held before Christmas, along with a general fair on the Széchényi square. Many different concerts and festivals are held in the Liget during the year, to ensure a decent amount of entertainment for all ages. A Hungarian Chowder soap cooking competition is annually held on the Roosevelt square. Szeged also hosts a beer festival, plus an industrial fair, which collects hundreds of local and international companies wanting to show the public the different products they produce.

Szeged has a very extensive library (Municipal Somogyi Library), with about 1 million volumes of books and periodicals, many of them in English, German and French. The University of Szeged also has specialized libraries. The Central Medical Library contains 138.000 books and periodicals and has a direct medline connection with the European medical databases.

Among others Szeged has produced many world class swimmers, great chess players, powerful weightlifters. The list virtually goes on and on. The city is also host to many world class races. In 1998 for example Szeged was host to the Kayak-Canoe World Championships.