The Ambrózy house, built in Renaissance style in the 16th century, overlooks two streets, and it is regarded as one of the oldest mediaeval houses in the town centre. It is thought to have been constructed with the merging of several buildings and it still retains earlier Gothic details. Just like other similar houses, this one was also redecorated in Baroque style in the 18th century; its subsequent renovation according to modern standards was carried out in the 1960s. The house is believed to have served a protective function and its mediaeval origin is assumed on the basis of various details revealed during the renovations. The windows – both the ones opening on to Jurisics Square and to Chernel Street are of Gothic origin, and there is a colonnaded walkway built in Tuscan style on the first floor. The facade of the colonnade is decorated by a 16th-century sgraffito featuring flower baskets and leaf motifs.
The house had a number of famous permanent and some temporary residents; among the latter we can find anti-Habsburg (kuruc) brigadier Imre Bezerédy who was executed for high treason. The building received its name after Samuel Ambrózy, a local merchant, a town councillor and a member of the Lutheran congregation. The fire of 1710 that devastated the town centre also destroyed the town hall which, due to bad state of repair, proved inadequate for assembly meetings. Samuel Ambrózy, a senior member of the assembly offered his own house, so the senate’s meetings were held in his dwellings for a few years.
From the mid-1700s onwards, for about a hundred years, the house was owned by the Mecséry family. One prominent member was General Daniel Mecséry who suffered a serious head injury during the Battle of Nuremberg fought in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars. Following a long-term medical treatment, he eventually recovered, but his injury had been so severe that following his death in 1823 his skull was sent to a museum in Vienna and put on display as an unparalleled curiosity of the history of surgery.
During the 19th and 20th century, the housed was occupied by the Szovjaks, a dynasty of lawyers.
