Cultural walks

After Budapest, Sfântu Gheorghe has the largest number of buildings designed and built by Károly Kós. These works lasted for nearly 50 years and included both public and private buildings. The main commissioners were Ferenc Gödri, Mayor of Sfântu Gheorghe, Vilmos Csutak, Director of the Székely National Museum, Dr Kristóf Fogolyán, Director of the Public Hospital of Covasna County, and Dr Gábor Kabay, lawyer. Over the years, 15 Kós buildings have been covered, of which some smaller public buildings were demolished in the past regime. The most iconic Kós-building in Sfântu Gheorghe that can be visited houses the Szekler National Museum (10 Kós Károly Street). Other buildings designed by Kós that can be admired from the outside during a walk in St. George are: - the former Girl’s Grammar School (today it belongs to the "Székely Mikó" National College, 18 Gábor Áron Street) - the former Reformed Elementary School (today the Children's Palace, 19 Kőrösi Csoma Sándor Street) - the Keresztes House (9 Gróf Mikó Imre Street), where Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer and pianist, one of the most important composers of the 20th century, stayed in March 1927 - the Csulak House (family house, 11 Konsza Samu Street) The plan of the buildings on the cover photo is by Kónya Ádám; source: Szekler National Museum.

Târgu Secuiesc (in Romanian), Kézdivásárhely (in Hungarian) is the easternmost town of the Carpathian Basin inhabited mostly by Hungarians. There was once a Roman military camp in the area of ​​the city, which guarded the Oituz Gorge. The construction style of the city center (once a marketplace) is interesting, unique in Central Europe, and this is due to the network of courtyards,  surrounding the city center. So: take a walk in the oval-shaped historic city center to understand and admire this interesting construction style! Being a guild town, where potters, shoemakers, leather workers, blacksmiths and locksmiths lived and worked, these families built their houses in such a way as to be both the "workplace" and the family's living space. During fairs, they could display their goods directly in front of their houses, workshops, and on the market. The strip of plots surrounding the main square as a ring, known as courtyards (udvartér in Hungarian, Curte in Romanian), have survived to this day and define the individuality of the city to this day. These houses were concentrated around the marketplace (that is, the city center today), from which small streets emerge in the form of sunbeams: the so-called courtyards, i.e. "blocked streets". In the past, courtyards had family names such as Jancsó, Csiszár, Balogh, Kovács, Rácz, etc. From 1851, settlers also appeared in the courtyard community, so the surnames of the courtyards were gradually replaced by numbers. There are currently 73 such courtyards around the former market (today's city center), a third of which start from or are connected to the city center. During your walk, you can see many impressive buildings: most of the buildings in the city center date back to the second half of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century. Each of them has an interesting and beautiful story. To learn more about the city and get additional tips about Kézdivásárhely's tourist attractions and programs, do not hesitate to visit the Tourist Information Center located in the city center!