Mikluš Prison — Justice Behind Merchant Façades
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Mikluš Prison occupies connected medieval houses that later served municipal justice and detention. Its cells, administrative spaces and execution-related collections reveal a side of prosperous Košice that picturesque main-street façades easily hide.
Urban autonomy was not only the privilege to hold markets or build a town hall. Municipal government also meant policing, courts, punishment and control of disorder.
The museum’s darker displays can encourage sensational stories, so the stronger historical question is institutional: who had authority to punish, under what legal system, and how did a self-governing town make coercive power visible?