Stop 2 · Gossip Walk
Dugó tér
Dugonics tér · main university building, musical fountain · nickname means “Cork Square”
The university that poet Attila József felt had kicked him out later carried his name for forty years.
On the phone a local just says “I'm at the Dugó”. Out-of-towners think of a traffic jam (dugó also means jam) and are disappointed. It's just Dugonics tér, nicknamed.
In the middle of the square is the musical fountain, behind it the university's yellow main building. In March 1925 the paper Szeged published young Attila József's poem “With a Pure Heart”. Linguistics professor Antal Horger was outraged and summoned the student in front of two witnesses.
Legend says he was expelled. There is no archival trace of that, and literary historians say he could have continued his studies. He, however, felt the teaching career had been taken from him, and the grievance is there in his poem “For My Birthday”.
The twist: from 1961 to 2000 the very same university was called Attila József University (JATE).
The musical fountain opened on 19 August 1979, for the 100th anniversary of the great flood; István Tarnai designed it. The central jet shoots 12 metres high. At first the music came from vinyl records, then tape, and later from a Commodore 64 that sat in the basement of the university's main building.
In 2014 it only played music during office hours: someone had to climb down into a service shaft to restart the player, and at weekends nobody was there to do it. Today it runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. to nearly 100 tunes.
Open in the app →Animated scene, old photos, stamps and the full map. Free, nothing to install.Facts and labels
- Half true“He was kicked out of university.” There was a threat and disciplinary action in sight, but no trace of an official expulsion.
- True“With a Pure Heart” appeared in the paper Szeged on 25 March 1925.
- Half true“This is Hungary's first musical fountain.” According to Délmagyar, the first one in historical Hungary played in Marosvásárhely around 1820.
- TrueIn 1921, when the University of Kolozsvár moved to Szeged, the Law Faculty got the second floor of the Dugonics tér building. It only moved to the Lófara in 1951.
Sources
- Eduline: tényleg eltanácsolták József Attilát?
- Panadea: az egyetem főépülete (JATE, 1961–2000)
- SZTE Jogi Kar: a kar épületének története
- Szeged365: szavak, amiket csak a szegediek értenek
- Délmagyar: 12 méterre csap fel a zenélő szökőkút (2010)
- HVG: a zenélő szökőkút némaságának titka (2014)
- Szeged365: indul a zenélő szökőkút (2026)