The octagonal Óváros Square is the heart of the city. Formerly used as a market square, it is now the venue for some of the city’s most popular festivals. For example, the 10-day Rosé, Riesling and Jazz Days thematic music and food festival takes place among the art nouveau buildings on Óváros Square. Nowadays the square has become a marketplace once again, regularly hosting fairs and numerous other city events.
Óváros Square continues southwards into Rákóczi Ferenc Street, the intact part of the former High Street. The street scape presents a historic image overall, with some houses preserving the Baroque elements of their antecedents. The courtyard of house number 5 boasts a beautiful 18th century, two-storey vaulted portico. This building – the so-called Matulka House – was Veszprém’s first town hall and used as such until 1885.
House number 8 is the former Gold Eagle Pharmacy, and still a pharmacy to this day. Its beautiful wooden portal and some of its etched glass windows have been preserved in their original form.
The Baroque house at number 4 is also famous for its inhabitants. Károly Francsics, a barber and diarist, and Lipót Auer, a world-renowned violinist and music teacher, lived here in the mid-19th century.
