Subotica

The second most populated town (160 000). Subotica has been a historical crossroads and a high tourist place at the same time. Peopled by Serbs, Hungarians, Jews and many minorities like Bunjevci or Slovaks, Subotica has been a true multi-confessional and multiethnic town. Situated a few kilometres away from the border to Hungary on the great road connecting Europe and the East, this town became rather of the world, a kind of Pannonian St. Moritz. At the end of XIX century when the town had completely been transformed, there began coming the Viennians and Hungarians from Budapest attracted by the shadowed parks, the charming hotels and the lakes in summer. Today Subotica has been in the heart of a region offering numerous tourist attractions.

History

This town very peopled and active today, was a provincial burgh for a long time. Named “Szabatka” in Middle Ages it had been Sandzak of Szeged under the Ottoman occupation. There did not remain any remnant from this presence today. In 1526 the catholic Hungary had taken the possession of this place and thereafter had been named “Sveti Matija”. The burgh had enhance its importance in XVII century thanks to the commerce between the Ottoman Empire in the South and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the North.
Subotica had obtained the status of a free town 1779, and in that period it had been known under the soft name of “Marijaterezijapolis”. Even the imperial family had tasted the thermal water from Palic. But at the end of XIX century Subotica, just like Budapest, had known its development and had adopted its present features. Between 1880 and 1914 had refreshed the town giving it a lot of green spaces, and the greatest cultural, political and religious edifices had been constructed. At the same moment there appeared very elegant residence of princes and a great many hotel establishments on the coast of the lake of Palic.

TOURIST SITES

Edifices

GRADSKA KUCA. The emblem and the proud of its inhabitants at the same time. Finished in 1912, this construction typical for the “Hungarian cessation”, noticed by its dimensions and its bright red and white colours of a height of 76 m and making a rectangle of 105 times 55 m, the Mayoralty has been visible from all entranced to the town it had been necessary to strengthen the sandy ground by trees and to make a concrete plate under the main tower, what had never been seen before.
The inside has been reminding of the local life. At the entrance there are motives from everyday life in Vojvodina. On the first floor a hall with the heavy Hungarian furniture decorated by the folklore decoration. The baroque glass showcases visible today, had been hidden during fourteen years because they honoured too much the Hungarian history like the poet Rakoczi or the national hero Koszut.

LIKOVNI SUSRET. In the park of Lenin, an edifice like Gaudi totally surprising. It has been outstanding by its covered balconies, and in addition the roofs of at least strange shapes, and especially the foolish colours going from the azure blue to the violet passing through the orange. Constructed in 1904 in the new art style, it remained an example of the bravery in the matter of architecture.

PALICKI TORANJ (Palic). This water tower of an oblong shape remained the surprising symbol of this water town. This bristled sword in the plane of Vojvodina from 1912 has been still marking the spirits.
The places of the cult

THE SAINT THERESE CATHEDRAL, Trg zrtava fasizma 19. The great baroque cathedral in the town known as the “Great Church” had been erected in honour of the protectress of Subotica. St Therese of Avila. Sixty one meters long 26 meters wide and 18 meters in height, that cathedral had been constructed in XVII century by the Budapest architect Franz Kaufmann. The pictures have been by Josef Schoefft, and the wall decorations by Zagrebian Johannes Clausen. But the glass showcases have been from the XIX century.

THE ORTHODOX CHURCH SAINT DIMITRIOS, Beogradski Put (Aleksandrova). A little out of the way, this church has been interesting for two reasons. Constructed 1818 and renewed 1904, this church observed the rules of the brilliant art of the baroque with abundance of gold and a lot of decoration borrowed from the nature. Otherwise, the iconostasis from 1776 has been a unique example of Serbian baroque art developed on this side of the Danube. There are brilliant colours illustrating the saints illuminated by gold and the work in wood.

THE SYNAGOGUE, Dimitrija Tucovica 13. The building of a round shape and of the surprising colours if pink orange and yellow tan. Constructed in 1902 by Marcel Komora, collaborator of Eden Lehner who created the Hungarian version of the cessation style. This edifice in the shape of a giant cake has been the carrier of many innovations. It had rarely It had rarely been constructed so high a synagogue. The utilisation of the domes has also been an innovation. To all this one should add the windows of the oyster shell and the roofs being a mixture of Austrian and Eastern styles, one should understand the particular interest of this building.