Sights in Debrecen
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Great Church
Many of Debrecen's big sights are at the northern end of Piac utca, including the yellow neoclassical Great Church. Built in 1821, it has become so synonymous with Debrecen that mirages of its twin clock towers were reportedly seen on the Great Plain early last century.
Accommodating some 3000 people, the Great Church is Hungary's largest Protestant church, and it was here that Lajos Kossuth read the Declaration of Independence from Austria on 14 April 1849. The nave is rather plain and austere aside from the magnificent organ in the loft behind the pulpit. Climb the 210 steps to the top of the west clock tower for grand views over the city.
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B
Reformed College
North of the Great Church stands the Reformed College, built in 1816, the site of a prestigious secondary school and theological college since the Middle Ages. Downstairs, there are exhibits on religious art and sacred objects (including a 17th-century chalice made from a coconut) and on the school's history, where 'early to bed, early to rise' was the motto.
Upstairs is the relatively bland 650,000-volume library and the bright, white oratory, where the breakaway National Assembly met in 1849 and Hungary's postwar provisional government was declared in 1944.
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C
Déri Museum
Folklore exhibits at the Déri Museum offer excellent insights into life on the puszta and the bourgeois citizens of Debrecen up to the 19th century. Mihály Munkácsy's mythical interpretations of the Hortobágy and his Christ's Passion take pride of place in a separate art gallery.
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D
Status Que Conservative Synagogue
The Status Que Conservative Synagogue dates from 1909 and is once again falling apart, while the façade of the nearby Orthodox synagogue (Pászti utca 6) has enjoyed a lick of paint but its interior is still waiting for some much-needed TLC.
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E
Medgyessy Museum
The Déri Museum's entrance in Piac utca is flanked by four superb bronzes by sculptor Ferenc Medgyessy, a local boy who merits his own Medgyessy Museum in an old burgher house to the northeast of the Déri Museum.
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Flea Market
Away from Debrecen's city centre, the colourful flea market attracts a motley group of Ukrainians, Poles, Romanians, Roma and Hungarians from Transylvania who hawk everything from socks to live animals.
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Puszta Forest
If you want to see more of the great outdoors, head for the Puszta Forest, a protected area of pine and acacia forests, lakes and trails a few kilometres to the east and southeast of Debrecen.
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Tímárház
The Tímárház is a folk-craft centre and workshop, where embroiderers, basket weavers, carvers and so on do their stuff in rotation.
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Arboretum
There is a splendid arboretum in Bánk, the centre of Puszta Forest (Erdőspuszta).
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