House with locked log in Arad, Historic monument in Arad, Romania.

The House with the Locked Log is a two-storey house at the corner of Strada Tribunul Dobra and Strada Plevnei, built in 1815 by Viennese merchant Josef Winkler and renovated in 1851, as inscribed on the gable. Its upper floor was added in 1930. A niche at the corner once held an iron-clad tree trunk, the Stock im Eisen, made in 1927 by Timișoara sculptor Moritz Heim.

Josef Winkler, a Vienna-born merchant, built the house in 1815; a gable inscription records its renovation in 1851. During the 1848 revolution the Austrian imperial secret service occupied the building, and its cellar served as a prison for revolutionaries. The upper floor was added in a 1930 modernization.

The name comes from the Stock im Eisen: journeymen on their travels drove a nail into the iron-clad trunk to mark their passage through Arad, a custom kept until the guilds were abolished by law in 1872. The trunk, made in 1927 by Timișoara sculptor Moritz Heim for Andrei Trandafir after the Viennese model, stood in the corner niche held by an iron bracket with a large square padlock that had no keyhole.

The house stands at Strada Tribunul Dobra nr. 7, at the corner with Strada Plevnei. It is a private, non-visitable building, so the corner niche is seen from the street; the iron-clad log itself is kept at the Art Gallery of the Arad Museum Complex. Look for the facade inscription recording the 1815 construction and 1851 renovation.

The iron-wrapped log in the corner niche was carved in 1927 by Timișoara sculptor Moritz Heim for Andrei Trandafir, following the Viennese model. Apprentices drove nails into such logs to mark their journeyman travels; the practice ended in 1872 when guilds were abolished. The log was stolen in 1994 and, once recovered, moved to the Arad Museum of Art.