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The house situated on Hlavné námestie Street No. 55 is a unique monument of medieval bourgeois architecture in Kežmarok. It represents the so-called mázhaus type of burgher house, that is, from the street you entered directly into a large hall, which usually had a commercial or craft function. The entire area of the hall was vaulted on the central pillar, which is still partially noticeable in the entrance hall to the right of the cash desk.
The house was built in the second half of the 15th century. Among other things, the entrance stone portal and a broken vault in the rear part of the passage have been preserved from the Gothic period.
Upstairs there is a more than 500-year-old wooden beamed ceiling. The Renaissance reconstruction by the goldsmith, Daniel Haltz, dates back to 1698 as proved by the ceiling beam with carved initials “DH“ and the carving of the chalice - the emblem of the goldsmiths in the back room on the ground floor. During the house´s modernisation, in the Baroque period in the second half of the 18th century, a new vault was created in front of the house. In the 19th century, the building underwent some Classicist modifications. From 1887 to 1895, the house housed a local grammar school teacher and writer, Štefan Palcsó (1826 - 1895).
In the showcase in the passageway, there are examples of locksmith work - door locks and pulleys (18th-19th centuries). On the opposite side, there are blacksmith works, e.g. Gothic doors with curved arch, Rococo window grillages and a Classicist signboard of a soap manufacturer from the end of the 18th century.
You can also see the 17th-19th century Spiš chests decorated with carvings, paintings and marquetry. The oldest one is from the late 17th century, decorated with plastic carved decorations and painted figures of women with flowers with the German inscription: "Everything depends on God's blessing." The chest decorated with a painting that represents exotic flora - palm trees and a safe metal chest are also interesting. Chests were the forerunners of cabinets, and such storage and easily mobile furniture maintained its popularity until the 19th century, in the countryside until the middle of the 20th century.
