The House with Caryatides (Casa cu Cariatide), also known as the Little Palace (Micul Palat), is a late-Baroque townhouse in the historic center of Sibiu, best recognized by the two sculpted female figures flanking its entrance.
The present house was created in 1786 after the widow of Count Gregorius Bethlen acquired an older property on the site and rebuilt it as a more fashionable urban residence. The earlier house had belonged to Sebastian Hann, one of Sibiu’s best-known goldsmiths, but the late-18th-century rebuilding gave the property the refined appearance that later inspired the name Little Palace.
Its most distinctive feature is the entrance, where two caryatides rise on tall stone pedestals and frame the gateway beneath the upper floor. The figures, each around 2.8 meters high, are thought to have come from the workshop of sculptor Simon Hoffmeyer, who also worked on the sculptural decoration of the Brukenthal Palace in Piața Mare. They originally supported a projecting upper bay, creating an even more pronounced centerpiece above the entrance.
That arrangement changed after the house was damaged during the fighting of 1849. When the upper floor was repaired, the projecting bay was replaced by the balcony seen today, while the caryatides were retained and became the feature that now defines the building. The heavy oak entrance gate, with surviving Baroque ironwork, adds another original detail worth noticing from the street.
