Zala House

Zala House, located at 8 Romanilor Square, forms part of the historic frontage of the former Coronini Square, one of the representative urban spaces of the Fabric district. The building can be seen in period photographs taken during the construction of the Millennium Roman Catholic Church, between 1896 and 1901. Research carried out by the Heritage of Timișoara team, with the support of architect Mihai Opriș, led to the identification of the building permit, issued on 13 March 1897 in the name of Tunner Lajos.

The subsequent history of the house is closely connected to the Zala family and, through them, to the Friedmann and Bloch families. In the first decades of the 20th century, the house belonged to Ferenc (Francisc), born around 1880, and his wife Regina, née Zeidner. The family later adopted the name Zala following the Magyarisation of the name Zeidner in the 1930s. Ferenc and Regina had two children, Elena and Andrei.

After Ferenc’s death, Regina married the merchant Alexandru Friedmann. He is associated with the property in both a 1938 commercial directory and the 1959 telephone directory.

Elena married Lorand Bloch, born in 1909, and the couple had a son, George (Gyuri) Bloch. Elena’s younger brother, Andrei, later emigrated to Israel, where he died.

Lorand Bloch’s fate connects the history of the house to the anti-Jewish persecution of the Second World War. In 1941, Lorand Bloch was sent to a forced labour detachment at Păuliș-Ghioroc, in Arad County. He died there on 12 November 1943.

In his memory, a Stolperstein, or “stumbling stone”, was installed in the pavement in front of the house in 2014 as part of the project initiated by German artist Gunter Demnig to commemorate individual victims of Nazi persecution. The stone dedicated to Lorand Bloch was the first Stolperstein installed in Timișoara and in Romania.

The history of the house has been preserved not only through documents, but also through the memories of those who lived there. During the research conducted by Heritage of Timișoara, Matilda D., who had lived in the building for more than six decades, recalled the Friedmann family and the former open inner courtyards, through which it was possible to walk from Romanilor Square to Ștefan cel Mare Street. She also remembered George Bloch as a child and his return, many years later, to his family home.

In 2021, George Bloch, who had settled in France, contacted Heritage of Timișoara through the page dedicated to Zala House, introducing himself as the son of Lorand Bloch and a grandson of the Zala family. The dialogue that followed made it possible to expand the family history and clarify information about the people who had lived in the house. The research was further developed with the support of Getta Neumann, author of “Pe urmele Timișoarei evreiești. Mai mult decât un ghid” (“On the Trail of Jewish Timișoara. More Than a Guide”), who, together with George Bloch, contributed to verifying and clarifying details concerning the Zala-Bloch family and the history of the house.