Eger - Main Sights

Main Sights

(Eger has 17 churches, but tourists usually visit only three or four)

• Castle of Eger
• The Cathedral or basilica, built in 1831-37 to Classicist designs by József Hild, is imposing rather than attractive, but contains some remarkable painting and sculpture. Late morning organ recitals are held frequently.
• Minaret, 17th century. The northernmost Turkish minaret in Europe is 40 meters high and one of only three survivors in Hungary. It can be climbed for a good view of the city centre.
• Város a város alatt (literally "City under the city") a system of cellars near the Cathedral.
• Szépasszonyvölgy ("The Valley of the Beautiful Woman". A valley on the southern edge of Eger which has numerous wine cellars, each with their own wine bar catering to tourists. A tram shuttles tourists to/from Dobó tér in the summer months.
• Dobó tér. The Baroque Minorite Church (1758–67), built to the designs of Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer of Prague with original ceiling frescoes by Márton Reindl, is the focal point of the city's most imposing square, flanked by the City Hall and the old priory buildings, part of which contain the Palóc Museum, showing the artefacts of a distinctive regional ethnic community. The square and several of the retail streets around it are pedestrianized.
• The Lyceum (Eszterházy College), designed by József Gerl and Jakab Fellner and built in 1765-85, is a splendid example of the restrained Zopf style. There are three remarkable 18th-century frescoed ceilings, of which only the one in the library is open to the public. Painted by the Viennese artist Johann Lukas Kracker in 1778, it depicts the Council of Trent of 1545-63, which launched the Counter-Reformation. Among the figures depicted are the Reformers Luther and Zwingli, whose "heretical" books are being struck by a bolt of lightning. The beautifully furnished library opened in 1793. There is a camera obscura or periscope at the top of the building, projecting images of the city onto a table.
• Turkish Bath
• The Provost Minor's Palace, 1758, is the finest Rococo building in the city. It also has a fine fresco by Kracker ("The Triumph of Virtue over Sin"), other 18th-century murals, and remarkable 18th-century wrought ironwork.
• Agria Park, a shopping mall which opened in March 2008.
• Archbishop's Garden
• The Fazola gate
• The Minorite Church
• The Serbian Orthodox Church (Rác-templom) is in Zopf style (1784–86). The interior was commissioned from the best Viennese artists by the rich local Serbian community of that time. It is dominated by a breath-taking iconostasis.
• The Cistercian church
• The Archbishop's Palace