Fellner & Helmer of Vienna designed the house that opened in Szeged on 14 October 1883, eclectic and neo-baroque; it burnt in 1885 and was restored the following year with minor changes. Szeged had rebuilt itself at speed after the flood of 1879, and a permanent theatre was part of that rebuilding; the word National entered the name in 1945. The Nagyszínház seats 680 and carries the opera and the large-scale work, while drama and the Szegedi Kortárs Balett use the 281-seat Kisszínház.