The Dangers of the House with Arcades

It was built between 1818 and 1822 as the headquarters of the Hussar regiment with Austrian money and local resources. The House with Arcades House is considered the oldest and most elegant building in Sfântu Gheorghe. For a time, it was also a prison, where, for example, the organisers of the anti-Hapsburg conspiracy in Covasna County, József Váradi and Ferenc Bartalis, spent their last night there before their execution in 1854. Later the building became the property of the Szekler Education Fund and, for decades, was the seat of the Sepsi District Court. Before World War I, the building was in danger of being demolished, but the outbreak of war prevented this. The site was earmarked as a county courthouse, just as a courthouse was planned to be built in its place in 1941, but World War II wrecked that plan too.

Since the 1950s, it has housed the documents of the State Archives, making it a formidable place for half a century, guarded at gunpoint and closed to the public. And for students, according to legend, anyone who passed through the arcades was sure to return home with a four that day.

Since March 2008, the dilapidated House with Arcades has been proudly proclaiming the memory and varied history of the former Szekler Hussar past, reborn inside and out. During the renovation of the Székely National Museum, it served as an exhibition space and housed some of the institution's offices.

Samu Csinta