Kőműves Kelemen (Clement Mason) is a Hungarian folk tale about the building of the fortress of Deva.
The eponymous poem makes reference to a well-known Hungarian folk tale in which the central character – a stonemason named Kőműves Kelemen – finds that the castle he’s trying to build keeps falling down, and is forced to sacrifice his beloved wife and mix her remains into the mortar in order to make the castle stand.
Believing themselves to be at the mercy of an old curse, they make an agreement; whoever's wife first appears in the construction area of the castle, will have their throat cut, corpse burned, and have her ashes mixed with the whitewash for the building.
This story was adapted by Imre Sarkadi, for the first time in a short story in 1947, and then in a play (1949-53) The play remained incomplete for some time, but in the 70s it was adapted In 1982, Csaba Ivánka and re-edited to fit the drama of musical theatre.
This adaptation was adopted by the notable duo of Levente Szörényi and János Bródy.