Milko Palace, Szeged

The Milkó Palace in Szeged was built in 1883 to designs by the prominent Hungarian architects Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos, in a French Neo-Renaissance style. The building rose on plots purchased in December 1881 by the merchant Izidor Milkó and his sons, with construction permits granted in spring 1882; the finished palace was divided between two branches of the family, one occupying the section facing the main square and the other the wing along Deák Ferenc street. Its ground floor was quickly let to a mix of shops, including an ironmonger, a music dealer, an optician, a wine merchant, and an agricultural-equipment retailer, reflecting the commercial bustle of Szeged's rebuilt late-nineteenth-century downtown. The palace was substantially renovated in 1934 under a later owner, Dániel Holtzer. Today, protected as a cultural monument and known locally as the Lechner Courtyard after its architect, the building underwent a major restoration completed in 2024 and remains one of Szeged's notable examples of early Lechner-school architecture.