The Babits Mihály Cultural Center in Szekszárd is packing 2026 with concerts, talks, films, clubs, family days, exhibitions, and a buzzing playhouse. Located at 7100 Szekszárd, Szent István Square (Szent István tér) 10, the venue is home base to a network of local clubs and performing groups that keep the city’s cultural calendar lively. The institution also operates the popular Agora Cinema (Agóra Mozi) and the House of Arts (Művészetek Háza), making the complex a go-to spot from matinees to late-night encores. For information and booking, the center lists general info and phone contacts, and points visitors to details on dates, accommodation, and food and drink around each event.
Key Dates You’ll Want on Your Calendar
The season starts with a day of remembrance on July 5, 2026: Holocaust Memorial Day in Szekszárd, a citywide moment of reflection anchored by the center’s programming. After the summer pause, September opens with a flourish: on September 7, the renowned piano duo Endre Hegedűs and Katalin Hegedűs take the stage for a grand piano concert, promising repertoire firepower and onstage chemistry that have made them favorites across Hungary. On September 16, Best of Hungária brings back the legendary pop-rock hits of Hungária, delivering anthems and nostalgia for a singalong crowd.
Fall deepens with Gergely Rákász’s Mozart program on November 6, a show built on virtuosic organ artistry and storytelling flair. On November 24, the hall fills with big-screen emotion at a Film Music Concert, a live set of cinema themes and orchestral swells tailor-made for soundtrack lovers. The following night, November 25, journalist and globetrotter Tvrtko presents Csernobil 40 – Szekszárd (Chernobyl 40 – Szekszárd), an evening talk reflecting on Chernobyl four decades on, with on-the-ground insight and human stories. December brings two marquee nights: on December 10, the Open Academy hosts popular speaker Pál Feri with the talk “I’m Fed Up! What Should I Do?”—a plainspoken, practical session on burnout, boundaries, and rebooting. On December 13, icon Kati Kovács celebrates a milestone with a jubilee concert loaded with hits and history. The year closes December 20 with Móricz Zsigmond–Tibor Kocsák–Tibor Miklós: Légy jó mindhalálig (Be Good Until Death) – Musical, the beloved classic reimagined for the stage with songs and heartfelt drama. The new year picks up on January 23, 2027 with László Dés – Péter Geszti – Krisztián Grecsó: A Pál utcai fiúk (The Paul Street Boys), based on Ferenc Molnár’s novel, a high-energy musical adaptation of the timeless Budapest tale of friendship and rivalry.
Where to Stay: Four Solid Picks Nearby
Hotel Merops**** is Szekszárd’s wine hotel in the city center, neighboring the Mészáros wine house and just a few minutes’ stroll from the main square. It blends small-town calm with the wine region’s ambiance, serving both those who want to switch off and travelers chasing active days out. Expect a distinctive interior, attentive staff, and a broad, personalized range of services that suits business stays and weekend escapes alike.
Nádasdi Ház offers 8 rooms and 2 apartments for visitors and wraps it with a local flavor of food and wine. Its Main Street Bistro draws locals and travelers with a wide menu and fresh, carefully prepared dishes. They organize tastings and host pitch-perfect Szekszárd-style events in the cellar—great for birthdays, friendly dinners, or company gatherings—with a promise to make it memorable.
Sió Motel sits at Szekszárd’s northern gateway along Route 6, straddling the Szekszárd and Tolna wine regions. It’s close to the Gemenc forest and the Sárköz area, spread over 2.5 hectares. For road-trippers or anyone plotting days between vineyards and floodplain forests, it’s a practical, roomy base.
Hotel Zodiaco***, the only three-star option in Szekszárd and its surroundings, serves guests in a modern, elegant setting. The hotel’s philosophy revolves around satisfaction: they roll out new solutions year by year to make both business overnights and weekend downtime as smooth and comfortable as possible.
Eat and Drink: Wineries With Character
Wine country frames the cultural calendar here. Attila Birtok, in the Baranya Valley, farms 34.6 acres of vines and processes Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos), Kadarka, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zweigelt. At Bodri Winery (Bodri Pincészet), a 247-acre estate and tourism hub on Szekszárd’s southern edge, everything scales up: a 19,375-square-foot grand cellar under twelve domes, a 3,229-square-foot aging cellar open on tours, and a 15,069-square-foot rosé facility geared for quality at volume. Guests can bed down in stylish rooms for 61 people and unwind in the underground thermal Roman bath with domes, plus a jacuzzi and sauna. Optimus Restaurant (Optimus Étterem) showcases the diversity of Hungarian cuisine, modernized yet faithful to bold, local flavors, with pairings dialed to Bodri wines.
Borfaragó Cellar (Borfaragó Pince), in the heart of Szekszárd’s so-called “upper town,” occupies a former carpentry and woodcarving workshop. It hosts tastings of handcrafted wines alongside folk woodcarving masterworks, and it’s a clever hideaway: not in the city’s most crowded patch, but still easy to reach.
Several producers spotlight local grapes with distinct philosophies. A Várdomb-based estate leans on Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos) as a cornerstone for both varietal bottlings and blends, while tending Riesling, Cserszegi Fűszeres, Kadarka, Portugeiser (Kékoportó), Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Syrah. A natural-leaning, small-scale winery in the Porkoláb Valley processes only estate-grown fruit and forgoes commercial yeasts, malolactic cultures, enzymes, fining agents, colorants, and flavor or acid tweaks—also skipping filtration, sterilization, oxygen dosing, and heat treatments—then bottles everything unfiltered. Another cellar loves to experiment: nearly every red variety becomes a rosé as well, with international medals to show for it; reds stay rooted in Szekszárd signatures Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos) and Kadarka, rounded with Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinot Noir.
You’ll also find mood-lifting terraces for a “something different” afternoon: unplug on a hillside, lean back, and sip. The Eszterbauer family, with Swabian and Serbian roots, runs a tradition-rich family winery where tastings in a show cellar are presented by family members themselves. Their wine and guesthouse hosts groups of 8 to 50 with bites ranging from simple wine snacks to full multi-course dinners, and a webshop keeps the award-winners a click away. One more family winery farms 16.3 acres across four Szekszárd sites, focusing on Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Blaufränkisch (Kékfrankos)—another reason to plan a long weekend and make room for an extra tasting flight.
