Top Things to Do in Subotica City

If you have visited Serbia you’ve probably explored Belgrade, the Capital, and maybe even wandered through the city of Novi Sad, the birthplace of the famous Exit Festival. You’ve learned that there is more to explore in Serbia and now you’re thinking where to go next? Well, we bring you the colorful city of Subotica (Hungarian: Szabadka) via our media guided Subotica City Tour, with some of the most popular spots. This lovely multicultural city is the northernmost city in Serbia, on the border with Hungary. Unique in Serbia, Subotica has the most buildings built in the Art Nouveau style that will blow your mind, it is a promise!

Let’s see some cool landmarks…

Religious Buildings of Subotica

As we’ve already mentioned, Subotica is a multicultural place. Therefore, there are many places where citizens worship their religions, most popular being the Franciscan Church of St. Michael, Synagogue, Cathedral, and Serbian Orthodox Church. Each one of them is amazing, with unique and different architecture and they stand as a perfect fit for this colorful city. But our personal favorite is the synagogue which was built in Art Nouveau style and, according to many, it is the most beautiful synagogue in this part of Europe.

City Hall – The Landmark

Churches are dominant buildings in many cities, but since Subotica is so different this is not the case. Subotica’s main landmark is its City Hall and it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Before the City Hall was one small and not a very pretty building, surrounded by glorious ones that were kind of threatening to become the landmark. That is why the new shiny City Hall was built. The first idea was to have a building in Baroque style, but they’ve changed their minds in the middle of the project and Subotica got this truly unique and beautiful landmark.

Miksa Dömötör Palace

Most of the Subotica’s citizens commissioned local architects for building their family residences. But there were few that wanted to stand out, so they hired architects from Budapest who built them in Art Nouveau style. One of them was Dr. Miksa Dömötör, a physician who hired Vágó brothers to build him a unique residence, which houses the City Museum of Subotica nowadays.

High School Building

The beautiful yellow building which will grab your attention immediately is Gymnasium, the first high school in Subotica, designed in the Neo-Baroque style. It is different from all the Art Nouveau buildings and that is what makes Subotica so vibrant.

City Square

A place where the roads of five towns once intersected, the Square is now a meeting point. Most of the concerts, festivals, and bazaars are held there. It is framed with five beautiful buildings and a park. There is the City Library, a yellow building that was once a social club. In the middle of the square, there is a monument to the tzar Jovan Nenad, nicknamed “The Black”, who was a controversial historical figure. The monument was even beheaded once, as Jovan Nenad himself was. Near the monument, there are two fountains, Green and Blue.

National Theatre

National Theatre is also located in City Square. An interesting fact is that the city needed a theatre and a hotel, so it was built 2in1. The theatre is facing City Square and the hotel is facing the Korzo street.

Jadran

Jadran, the former Sokolski dom is named after the Jadran cinema. It was built for sports and cultural needs in 1936 and was an excellent example of inter-war architecture, which was inspired by the Serbian medieval “Moravian” style and designed by local architects. So you can see that many different architectural styles can be found in Subotica. Between the two world wars, members of the Sokol organization (united around the idea of Yugoslavhood) gathered here. Today it houses several important institutions: Children’s Theatre, Youth Cultural Center, National Theatre’s temporary stage, a small sports stadium, and facilities of several sports clubs.

Raichle Palace

Raichle Palace is our last but not the least spot in Subotica, home of an architect who built some of the most beautiful buildings in Subotica, Ferenc Raichle. He gave his heart and soul into this building and it resulted in amazing details. When we saw it, we thought of Barcelona and Antonio Gaudi. This colorful palace was built in 1904 in the Hungarian Art Nouveau style – and inspired by the folk art of Transylvania. A true masterpiece, it looks amazing on the pictures – imagine how gorgeous it is in person!

Raichle Palace is a cherry on the top of our Subotica City Tour. A must-see, a jaw-dropping building! Subotica is such a colorful city full of buildings of different architectural styles. If you are looking for parties this might not be the right place for you. But if you are architecture-freak when it comes to traveling this is your cup of tea. Visit our Cultural Places platform and get the right directions to these amazing buildings and enjoy your visit.

*Photos by Tourists Organization of Subotica