Stop 3 · Underground Walk
Flood Memorial
Corner of Tisza Lajos körút and Huszár Mátyás rakpart · 1979
Chrome-steel columns where world-champion breakdancers spun in the 90s, and where cars have been crashing for decades.
It was unveiled in 1979, exactly 100 years after the great flood. György Segesdi made it from chrome steel; in front stand columns and ten black granite-clad blocks. According to the local paper it symbolises the city's victory over the flood.
The columns carry the coats of arms of the capitals that helped rebuild Szeged: Rome, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin and Vienna. The same cities the sections of the Nagykörút are named after.
In the 90s Suicidal Lifestyle, Szeged's first real breakdance crew (founded 1991), practised here and at the Nagyáruház department store. They were often chased away, and a practice hall was only a dream. In both 1997 and 1998 they came fourth at Battle of the Year, the unofficial world championship of breaking; in 1999 they won it, and in 2000 the UK B-Boy Championships too.
One of the members, Gombi (György András Heé), is now an international breaking judge who has scored at a World Championship and the World Games. A local story says Goxy, aka Zoltán Gógán, also made it into the American breakdance Hall of Fame. We're still looking for a written source.
According to the local paper it's a favourite meeting point for young people, and some secretly climb it.
Cars have been crashing in the sharp bend of the ramp down to the embankment for decades: five times in two months in 2004, four times in 13 months in 2021–22. In 2009, at Red Bull's street show in Szeged, Sebastian Vettel took the same bend in a Formula 1 car.
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- True1979, György Segesdi, chrome steel.
- TrueThe columns carry the coats of arms of the helping capitals.
- TrueSzeged's Suicidal Lifestyle practised here and won Battle of the Year in 1999.
- Local storyGoxy (Zoltán Gógán) in the Hall of Fame: a local's story, we're still looking for a written source.
- TrueFour cars hit it in 13 months in 2021–22.