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The Klinika Club (Clinic University Club) will receive a commemorative pop music plaque in November.

Prior to becoming a movie theater, the building of the Klinika Klub was a university funeral home, offering funeral services during the 1950s.  Later that decade it was turned into a movie theater by the order of Mátyás Rákosi, a Hungarian communist politician, in order to serve the entertainment needs of the university staff.

During the 1960s, university beat bands discovered it and started to use it as a music venue and club. Between 1971 and 1975, the DOTE band rehearsed and performed here, and two cult bands of the city, Color and Panta Rhei, also started their career here. 

In the mid-90s, Zsolt Jantyik, the frontman of the PG Group led the club. He planned to re-launch the club with a one-week non-stop series, which eventually took two and a half months. There was a concert every night for seventy-five days. 

In the second half of the 1990s, practically almost all leading Hungarian music bands performed in the club.

Today, the club still hosts diverse performances and concerts. You can find the current programs here.

The Munkácsy Hall, is the most popular exhibit space at the Déri Museum, because it is the home to Munkácsy’s monumental works of “Christ’s history of suffering”.

The first painting of the trilogy’s “Christ before Pilate” was completed by Munkácsy in 1881. The second piece “Ecce Homo” was completed in 1896, and the third work “Golgotha” in 1884.

Munkácsy Mihály’s famous “Christ Trilogy” attracts tens of thousands of tourists to the Déri Museum in Debrecen every year. In 1930, when the museum opened its doors, it was an entire room named “Ecce Homo” where visitors could see all the 3 pieces of the Trilogy.

In 1995, for the first time, the three pictures were together in Debrecen. Since then, it has been visible occasionally together until January 2019. From January 2019, all three paintings are owned by the Hungarian state. Ecce homo and Golgotha are purely Hungarian state-owned, and the painting “Christ before Pilate” became Hungarian state-owned through the National Bank of Hungary’s depository program.

The Hortobágy National Park shares the top 20 most beautiful destinations rankings with the Loire Valley, Bohinj Lake, Susak Island or Bavarian Forest National Park. Not only is the Hortobágy wilderness an important and symbolic site as a national landscape, but it has also been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1999.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site currently has 1007 World Heritage Sites, of which 779 have been named for their cultural value. Of these, only 83 can be classified as cultural landscapes. However, in less than 10 of them did shepherds and animal herding play a role in shaping the landscape, including the Hortobágy National Park.

CNN, one of the world’s best-known feeds, mentions several special features of the 800-square-kilometer landscape, such as the Nine Hole Bridge, the crane retreat, the particularly endangered Great Bustard or the Water Buffalo.

The list compiled by CNN lists 20 of Europe’s most beautiful travel destinations, including the Hortobágy National Park. See the full list below:

Beer has been a favorite drink of all ages. Breweries are rare in Hajdú-Bihar County, however, the first breweries in Debrecen were operating in the 1580s, while the Rákóczi brewery was operating in Tokaj, not far from Debrecen.

Today, there is only one in Debrecen, the Debreczeni Sörfőzed (Debreczeni Brewery). It mainly produces lager beer including light, brown and red Pilsen. They produce a pure natural product for the conscious consumer that can be consumed even by gluten-sensitive beer lovers. 

Hungary has much to offer the cyclist, it has a 1000 km route of the National Blue Trail, an internationally recognized cycle path is part of a European Cycling network, however, not everyone wants to cycle hundreds of kilometres a day, from point A to point B far away.  If this sounds like you, then the National Blue Trail may not be for you, luckily Debrecen has a great alternative.

There are many shorter cycling routes in Hungary, including cycling hotspots like Debrecen with its 100 km of cycle lanes and paths, and then there is the Great Forest to explore, right in the heart of the Debrecen city.  Fly into Debrecen Airport, rent a bike and explore the city and forest by bike.

The added benefit of this strategy is you base your trip from the comfort of a hotel room rather than the discomfort of a tent.  After a long day’s cycling, there is nothing better than taking a dip in one of Debrecen’s 36-39 degree thermal baths to soothe those tired muscles.  There are also some fantastic destinations close to Debrecen for your cycling excursions out into the Hungarian countryside.

What to Do In Debrecen

The city is extremely easy to navigate with very little traffic and good roads and cycle paths.  In addition, if you have technical issues there are many points of bike service with many independent bike shops.

Fröccs (Spritzer) is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks in Hungary. It is actually wine (mostly white wine) mixed with soda water, – most importantly, not with mineral water as is often the case nowadays and elsewhere in Europe, but with good old-fashioned soda water.

The story of the birth of the spritzer: the most important people met in András Fáy’s wine-press house on the 5 of October in 1842 in Fót, Hungary. The crowd also included Mihály Vörösmarty, famous poet and dramatist, Gergely Czuczor, linguist, and Ányos Jedlik, the inventor of the pendulum and the dynamo. Jedlik brought his invention, the soda bottle, and if he was there, he introduced his friends how he diluted his wine with soda because of his stomach issues. He sipped soda with fine white wine. Spritzer!. It is too German, we should rather call it „fröccs”, said Vörösmarty.

If you are a street food lover or if you are just seeking for traditional flavours, it is worth travelling to Debrecen. Now, during a virtual „Food tour”, we will show you what you can and should eat in the market in the morning, and where you can eat something at night or where you go to eat, even for vegan food lovers.

Let’s start at the Food market, located in the downtown part of the city, opposite the Forum shopping mall. One of the specialities of the market can be found at the Rózsa Falatozó, a diner with a small plastic seat right next to the entrance. At the first glance, it looks just like any other market stand, but here you can find an egg with marrow, baked “blood” with onion and fried sausages in addition to fried meat and the gyros. Last but not least you can ask for “bundás kenyér”, an inevitable Hungarian specialty any time of the year which is similar to French toast (fried egg bread).

A few steps away from the market, you can enjoy the menu of the Barabás Restaurant of particular note is stuffed cabbage from Debrecen, which is made of sour cabbage with the famous “Debrecen Double” sausage baked on top.

Hungary has become a short break hot spot over recent years and while Debrecen is not the capital city now, it once was, – several times!  It, therefore, has a lot to offer in the historical sense.

While Debrecen is much smaller than Budapest, this has its benefits, it is easy to navigate and generally far greener and quieter than Budapest, ideal for a short family-friendly trip.

It also has the benefit of being easy to access via the cities international airport, the only one outside of the capital, with direct flights from London’s Luton airport and from Heathrow Airport (with one-stop), as well as flights to many other countries.