The house known in specialized literature as the Basta house stood on the north side of the Little Square (Kispiac) of the Old Castle (presently Museum Square). The Basta house was a Gothic one-storey house, enlarged toward the east by a Renaissance-style building.
The building was a one-storey house with vaulted rooms, consisting of a representative, larger room on the ground floor and the first floor, followed by other smaller rooms, the staircase, and the elongated corridor on the west side. In 1553, the house was endowed with a portal decorated with motifs typical of the Renaissance architecture of the German territories, the closest analogies being the frames of the storey of the town hall in Bardejov (Slovakia).The main façade of the building had two Renaissance tripartite window frames on the ground floor, typical of the late 16th century. At the end of the 19th century, one of the wards of the Carolina Hospital operated in the building. At the beginning of the 20th century, the house was in an advanced state of disrepair, thus it was demolished in 1902, and three of its frames were acquired by the Numismatic and Antiquities Collection of the Transylvanian Museum Association.
(Illustration) Plan of the ground floor and first floor, drawings by the chief architect of Cluj, end of the 19th century
(Illustration) Main façade of the building in the year of its demolition, 1902, unidentified photographer