The headsman’s house was a building situated on Turzii alley, what is nowadays Avram Iancu street.There are many legends associated with that building. According to some legends, the house was where the headsmen of Cluj used to live. Other legends say that this was the house where a headsman who came from other lands came to live when he retired. Feeling great remorse for the ones whom he decapitated, the headsman dedicated the rest of his life in Cluj to charitable actions.
It is not known whether these stories are true or not. What it is known is that the building was attached to the external walls of the city. Some historians say that the place where the headsman of medieval Cluj lived could not had been build outside the walls of the city. Therefore, the second legend with the retired headsman is more likely to have happen. It is also possible that the association between the building and a headsman was made due to the fact that in that area very many Roma families used to live who earned their living with such activities.
For a long period of time the building didn’t benefit from any attention from the local authorities and after 1989 it was occupied by some Roma people until in 2002 when the building was totally destroyed by fire.
Text preluat de pe visitclujnapoca.ro.
