Cult edifice in Palic soon to be renovated

The Bagolyvar (Owl’s Tower) facility, which is located alongside the promenade by Lake Palic, was built in 1892. This tall and narrow villa was built in the then modern Swiss style, involving plenty of wood and tiles from the Zsolnay porcelain factory.

The building is associated with the top athlete Lajos Vermes, who organized the first Palic Olympics back in 1880, before Pierre de Coubertin revived the ancient Athenian games in 1896. Vermes entered an enormous investment of one million forints, which considerably upset his finances.

Bagolyvar was the first Olympic village in the world, and the ellipse-shaped running and bicycle track that he also built was the third in Europe, after those in London and Leipzig. The Palic Olympics were held regularly from 1880 to 1914. Lajos Vermes died at the age of 85 in 1945.

– For over a century, Bagolyvar has had many different purposes, including the function of an Olympic village, a children’s resort, a youth summer camp and an artists’ home. Even with all that, it has often been unused, and recently it caught fire. Now the authorities are working on bringing back the former glory to the building and making it a suitable home for an important function that will serve the community – said the deputy mayor, Csilla Goli.

The deputy mayor of Subotica emphasized that the plans of the renovation of Bagolyvar had been completed the previous year and that the budget had been prepared as well: the investment would cost around RSD 42 million and be realized at the initiative of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians.

According to Csilla Goli, the work on land administration is in progress at the moment, following which the building permit can be issued, so that Bagolyvar would be brought back to its old glory and so that the edifice would represent all that big effort that Lajos Vermes invested in preserving the community and popularity of sports.

Grad Subotica

Savez vojvođanskih Mađara

Csilla Goli

Bagolyvar villa in Palic

Owl s Tower