Szegedin

Szegedin, a royal free town of Hungary, stands at the confluence of the Maros with the Theiss, 118 miles by rail SE. of Budapest. This town was almost completely destroyed by a terrible flood in March 1879, out of 6566 houses 6235 being overwhelmed. Since then it has been rebuilt, and now possesses very handsome public buildings, including a town-house, post-office, law-courts, theatre, barracks, &c., and is protected against inundations by a double ring of embankments. The Theiss is spanned by a couple of railway bridges and a fine suspension bridge (1940 feet long), designed by Eiffel. Szegedin manufactures soap, spirits, matches, soda, tobacco, coarse cloth, &c., and carries on an extensive river-trade in wood, corn, and wool. A speciality of the place is paprika, a kind of capsicum. From 1526 to 1686 it was occupied by the Turks. Close by Haynau defeated the Hungarians on 3d August 1849. Pop. (1880) 73,675; (1890) 87,410.