IN THIS postcard from the 1920s we can see Mikluš’s prison, an interesting building dating back to the Middle Ages. The building was first used as a prison in the 17th century.
Mikluš’s prison also served to make Košice safer in another way: beneath it was the beginning of an underground corridor, which was connected to a complex system of subterranean passages that extended beneath the entire fortified city.
Prisoners in Košice who were sentenced to death would await their fate in this prison. Executions usually took place in Košice’s public squares in order to deepen the public’s respect for the law. In the case of particularly heinous crimes, however, executions were done outside the city at Šibeničná hora / Gallows Mountain, where today’s Železníky housing estate lies.
Many cities had their own particular methods of execution, and Košice’s involved a sort of reclining chair in which the prisoner had to sit with his or her head tilted back. Positioned thusly, the executioner would then behead the prisoner.
