The Reök Palace
MúzeumCafé 5.
The Reök is one of Hungary’s most noted Art Nouveau buildings. For nearly a year a state of the art exhibition hall and Regional Arts Centre have functioned here, with ‘visits’ by both Goya and Picasso. The originally residential building was completed in 1907 to the plans of architect Ede Magyar, who had worked in Paris. It was commissioned by engineer Iván Reök, a cousin of the artist Mihály Munkácsy, hence the name. In the inter-war period the Art Nouveau palace witnessed a bustling social life and remained a residential block for the cultural elite even during the Kádár period, although in those times it happened that a pig was once kept here. Today the Reök is not purely a venue for displays but a centre for all the arts where visitors can view an exhibition, take part in an event of the Opera Salon or the Chamber Theatre, listen to lectures on arts and culture, and participate in courses of painting and sculpture. A single institution is currently managing the Szeged Open-air Theatre Festival and the exhibition hall as a model-setting experiment.