CHURCHES

Alba Iulia hosts the oldest Israelite community in Transylvania, with a permanent activity until today. The city centre preserves Alba County’s only brick wall synagogue. Constructed in 1840, the synagogue is also the oldest of its kind in Transylvania. Baring the name of Rabbi Ezekiel Paneth, during whose time the synagogue was built, the construction is austere, but also Baroque and Neo-Classical elements are visible in its style. The three metal „balls” on the façade of the synagogue are three cannon balls, which are left in the wall during the Revolution of 1848-1849. Nearly a century later (1938) the synagogue was strongly shaken by a bomb attack – an event which is depict [...]

The centuries-old cemetery in Vasile Alecsandri Street is an integral part of the Israelite community in Alba Iulia. It is the oldest in Transylvania and among the oldest in Romania. A record of the cemetery discovered in Alba Iulia suggests it has existed for nearly 300 years. In addition, it was used by both the Sephardic Jewish community of Spanish rite and the Ashkenazi Jews in the area of German influence. The sacred dimension of the Jewish cemetery is extremely important. As a result, its monuments cannot be affected by human intervention and the tombs can no longer be used again. One of the most important funerary monuments is the tomb of Rabbi Ezekiel Paneth who built the first b [...]

The need to build a Lutheran Church in Alba Iulia can be linked to the construction of the Alba Carolina Citadel. When the construction site of the fortification opened, craftsmen from the Habsburg Empire's hereditary provinces came to town, a measure which increased the German community in Alba Iulia (a population of German Saxons also resided there). As such, there was a need to construct a place for the followers of Lutheranism. The city provided the land for the church in 1819. The area was a marshland at that time, so it required sanitation. The church was built between 1824-1826 alongside a church hall with an undetached apse, circular inside and polygonal on the outside. A bell tow [...]

This place of worship is the only Calvinist-Reformed Church in Alba Iulia. It is located in the lower town, in the former neighbourhood of ethnic Hungarians, long considered the central part of the city. The church was built between 1757-1761, on a land obtained with the consent of Empress Maria Theresa. The years of founding and the names of the founders appear on the inscription above the entrance to the church on the northern facade of the bell tower. The edifice of modest dimensions was built with a different plan from the other eighteenth-century churches in Alba Iulia. It is a hall-type structure, made up of a rectangular vessel enclosed at the east and west ends with a semicircula [...]

The Transylvanian Franciscans, a group of the Catholic monastic order of the same name, arrived in Alba Iulia in 1691 and settled in the so-called „Lower Town”. This period overlapped with the Habsburgs taking over Transylvania and when Catholicism was restored in the region. In 1725, the Franciscans were allocated a swampy area in the Heiuş and German city (today Maieri) neighbourhoods to raise a house of prayer. Constructed between 1752 and 1770, the Franciscan Church was renovated several times due to repeated overflows from the Mures River and a fire. The latter is mentioned on the frontispiece of the church, where a Latin inscription describes how the edifice was „restored fr [...]

The Greek Church is one of the four places of worship erected for the Romanians in „Lower Town” in the 18th century. Its name refers to the contribution of Aroman merchants to its construction. Nicolae Rat, the last confessor of Horea and Closca, was among its founders. Documents also mention the „un-united” church, namely Orthodox, unlike the Greek-Catholic churches. The need to erect the place of worship seems to be related to the taking over of the Orthodox Church from the present Lipoveni district by the Greek-Catholic after 1760. At the end of the eighteenth century, The Greek Church was built on the outskirts of Alba Iulia, in the field and later became central as new a [...]

Maieri Cemetery in Alba Iulia is a place of rest for both ordinary people and notable personalities of the city. It is located in the south-eastern corner of the citadel, on the same place as the old Orthodox cemetery belonging to the former mitropoly during the time of Michael the Brave. After the demolition of the Church, along with the opening of the construction site of the Alba Carolina Citadel, Romanian cemeteries were located near the „Lower Town” churches built in the 18th century. Over the years and with urban development these cemeteries have become overcrowded, taking up more and more wider space in the current location. In the Maieri cemetery, you will discover the funerar [...]

The Holy Trinity Church in Maieri embraced history on the morning of December 1, 1918, when the official Orthodox service was held there at the same time as the Greek-Catholic service at the nearby church - Maieri II. It was the day when the Union of Transylvania with Romania was decided in Alba Iulia. The place of worship in Maieri I was the last of the eighteenth century to be built for the Romanian population established in „Lower Town”, after those of Maieri II, Centru and Lipoveni. The church was built after 1785, the year of the execution of Horea and Cloșca, the leaders of the uprising that shook Transylvania. The execution that took place on February 28, 1785, on Dealul Furci [...]

The church in the Maieri II neighbourhood was the first brick wall church built for the Romanians settled in the „Lower Town” area. Its construction took place between 1713-1715, with the money received from the Austrian authorities as compensation for dismantling the Orthodox Metropolitan Church of Mihai Viteazul, located near the southeast corner of the medieval fortress. Interestingly, a part of the construction materials salvaged from the former metropolitan complex. Moreover, some massive limestone blocks visible in the church wall are supposed to have been conserved from the old Roman castrum. Following the town planning in the 18th century, the church was located on the edge of [...]

The northern district of the XVIII century city centre is named Lipoveni. In the first decades of this century, the Assumption Church was erected here. The years 1690-1691 are inscribed above the entrance into the church, but the inscription is considered unlikely by historians. The place of worship is not listed among a detailed map of the city from 1711. It only appears in the cartographic representations from 1752. The main contributor to the edifice was Ioan Dragoş de Thurna, an interesting character ennobled by Empress Maria Theresa in 1742. His name and coat of arms are engraved on two silver votive candles from 1736 and 1766 respectively. Several rebuilds have transformed the Chu [...]

The church has had two distinct phases: a historical one dating back to the first centuries of its existence and a modern one linked to its relocation and refurbishment. The church is believed to have been built in 1769 in the village of Brăzești, which currently belongs to the city of Baia de Arieş. The place of worship was moved to the current site, in the Cetate district of Alba Iulia, in 1991. Zamfira Constantinescu, the abbot of the Prislop Monastery, was the main contributor to the church's displacement. The painting was made by Sister Viorica Creţu from the same monastery, who apprenticed to Father Arsenie Boca, called „the Saint of Ardeal” (or Transylvania). The first ser [...]

The story of the wooden church began in the village of Acmar (in Blandian) in 1768. However, when a brick wall church was built in the village, the wooden one was abandoned. After 20 years of abandonment, the church was recovered on Emilian Birdaş’s initiative (Orthodox Bishop of Alba Iulia) when the edifice was moved to the current site of Valea Popii area in 1994. It is a ship-shaped oak beam construction with its base laid on a small stone foundation. An open porch supported by 12 wooden pillars is built along its whole length of the southern side. The entrance to the church - a massive oak door – is also here. The altar and the nave of the church bear three and four windows res [...]

It is the most spacious place of worship in Alba Iulia. Its construction, interior painting and rood screen have been achieved over a fairly long time (16-years). The consecration of the church took place on June 11, 2006, on Whitsun, that is, precisely at the event of its patronage, namely the „Descent of the Holy Spirit”. Located at the western end of the Roman Plateau and the city, the Church is located opposite the Coronation Cathedral. It was also the reason why the church has the west-facing altar, a particular case in the Orthodox edifice system. The architecture of the church is of a Neo-Byzantine type - a Greek cross shape, with two symmetrical bell towers at the entrance an [...]

The Memorial Church of „Michael the Brave” stands in the proximate site of the old Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral founded in 1597 by Michael the Brave. In the seventeenth century, the Metropolitan Complex housed an older church and a printing house alongside the cathedral. Alba Iulia was the capital of Orthodoxy in Transylvania at the time. The glory of the Orthodox Metropolitan Church in Alba Iulia was short-lived. The complex was demolished in 1715 when works for the great bastion fortress started. The construction of the current church, which is reminiscent of the Metropolitan Church of Transylvania, began in 1988. It was located as close as possible to the original cathedral of [...]