On the northern side of Kossuth Square stands one of Szentes’s most significant listed buildings, the early classicist Reformed Church (1808–1826). The lower part of its tower with a fire-watch circular balcony was built in 1774. The church is one of the largest in the country and has the longest nave in the Great Plain It can accommodate 3,500 people, making it the building with the largest capacity in the town of Szentes. It houses the country’s only functioning, original Angster organ, the work of József Angster and his son, master craftsmen from Pécs.
Between 1808 and 1826, the Reformed Church built a new church on the site of the medieval church that had burnt down in 1760. With the assistance of the Reformed pastor Bálint Kiss, the architect Ágoston Fischer of Kecskemét was commissioned to draw up the plans. The building, having taken its final form, ranks among the largest churches in Hungary. The tower, standing over 40 metres tall, is in classicist style, whilst the rest of the building bears late Baroque features. The main entrance has a stone frame with a segmental arch; pilasters, divided into levels, run along the rounded corners of the tower. Above its basket-arched pediment, a gallery protected by an iron railing can be seen.
The tower is topped by a raised, ribbed copper hemispherical dome. On the north façade, segmental-arched windows can be seen between the pilasters. The south façade was reinforced in 1891 with a row of seven buttresses. The western end of the church has a straight termination with rounded corners, featuring a double-leaf door crowned with a segmental arch in the main axis, and a tympanum above the cornice. The two-storey gallery within the 48 x 24-metre interior is asymmetrical, situated on the north side of the nave and at the two short ends. The gallery balustrade features a garland decoration in Louis XVI style.
The ceiling of the asymmetrical space is formed by two large Bohemian vault sections and two smaller ones alongside them. The walnut pulpit is a late Louis XVI style piece, featuring a polished surface, gilded edges, a blue-grey marbled column shaft and vase decoration. The church’s furnishings also include 18th-century artefacts: pewter lamps, pewter jugs, a communion cup, a communion cloth and a chalice. The tower clock, purchased at the town’s expense, was made by the Buda clockmaker Rauschmann and installed by Kari Vitus in 1828. According to tradition, this was the second horizontal clock in Hungary; the first was in the tower of Palatine Joseph’s castle in Alcsút.
Thanks to an exemplary collaboration between the local council and the church, the interior and exterior renovation of the church was completed in 2008, so today it can once again be admired in all its splendour.
In addition to church events, concerts and exhibitions are also held within its walls. Thanks to its exceptional acoustics, it serves as a venue for concerts of both classical and popular music.
Erzsébet Square Adjacent to Kossuth Square is the slightly smaller, regularly landscaped Erzsébet Square. It was formerly known as Holy Trinity Square, named after the Holy Trinity statue erected on its western side in 1886.
