From private capital for community use: the renewal of Oroszlán Street and its surroundings in Szeged

On 28 September, the reconstruction of the downtown historic building complex and street in Szeged, which was completed as a private investment of the founder of KÉSZ Csoport, was inaugurated in a ceremony accompanied by festival programmes, according to the information sheet sent to our newspaper.

Environment, hundreds of thousands of paving stones, rainwater reservoir, trees

The renovation of Lion Street, Nádor Street and Deák Ferenc Street involved the laying of nearly 100,000 paving stones in the affected sections and the installation of hundreds of metres of new street lighting cables, water pipes and stormwater drainage grates. Environmental protection was an important aspect of the renovation, with new candelabras and energy-saving LED lights installed, and a 35 m3 rainwater tank was installed to ensure that plants and trees in the public space can be cared for in a sustainable way.

Szeged among the leaders

At the inauguration ceremony László Botka, Mayor of Szeged emphasized: "Szeged not only shapes its present, but also preserves its past, so that it can pass it on to future generations in all its beauty." The mayor mentioned that Szeged is among the top Hungarian cities in terms of the number of local protected buildings, with 682 local protected buildings and 176 listed buildings. In recent years, the city has renovated and greened one of the oldest streets of Szeged, Oskola Street, and improved the cycling infrastructure, using its own budget and EU funding totalling HUF 2.4 billion, which has also helped the municipality to create a more coherent image of the Palanka.

The name KÉSZ Csoport is associated with Szeged

Mihály Varga, founder of KÉSZ Csoport, the company responsible for the construction and financing, said in his welcoming speech: „KÉSZ Csoport has always been proud of its Szeged roots, and we are delighted to be able to contribute to the modernisation of the city with dozens of construction and development projects. The renovation of the city centre was a special task, one of which we will always be proud. During the excavation, archaeologists from the Móra Ferenc Museum identified 132 excavation units, allowing us to collect a huge amount of artefacts. We managed to uncover unique archaeological phenomena, such as a section of the defensive structure that gave the Palánk district its name, and the remains of an 18th-19th century workshop,” said the founder of the group, detailing the construction work.