TOURIST ATTRACTIONS

It is the gate through which the king Ferdinand and the queen Maria entered when they visited Alba Iulia for the first time in 1919. Through here they entered again in 1922 when they were crowned as sovereigns of the Great Romania. The 6th gate is located on the western side of the Alba Carolina Citadel, on what is the third line of defence for the fortification, on the counterguard. The monument is a small one, being composed of two massive pillars made from overlapped stones, without any decoration elements, and linked to the brick wall. The restaurateurs placed two unexploded stone cannonballs on top of these pillars. The pillars are the limits of a vehicle access way through which, b [...]

The 7th gate is located on the northern side of the Alba Carolina Citadel, on the third line of the fortified defence, technically named „counterguard”. It was discovered during the ample reconstruction works for the Citadel, after being out of use for almost 300 years. The idea of the utility of this gate was abandoned since before the fortification was finished, so the opening was covered by a brick wall. It was probably considered that the existence of the gate would rather harden the defence of the main body of the citadel instead of easing it in case of an attack from the northern side. Before 1717, the gate was the exit way of the Austrian troops outside the walls, on the north [...]

There are seven of them and they give the Alba Carolina Citadel its seven-pointed star shape. We are talking about the bastions of the Citadel which form in the central area „the safe precinct” of the fortification, the most important and the best protected. Built on the eastern side of the fortification, the St. Capistrano bastion was named by the Austrians after Giovanni da Capistrano, an Italian Franciscan monk with a rich religious activity, sanctified after 1690. The walls of the bastion are built in brick and filled with earth, having a 2,5 meters thick base, and for the filling the builders used stone taken from the Apulum Roman castrum walls. It has a triangular shape with th [...]

Located in the central area of Alba Iulia, the Velican House embraced Romania’s history before 1 December 1918 and in the period that followed. One of the reasons for choosing the building as a meeting place for Transylvania’s lead politicians was that the Velican family used to have old connections with prominent fighters for the cause of the Union of Transylvania with Romania. The building was also comfortable. Camil Velican was one of the key organizers of the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia which decided the unification of Transylvania with Romania. Representatives of the Transylvanian Romanians used to meet in his home both before and after 1 December 1918. On 2 December, f [...]

It is the place in the heart of the Citadel where thousands of people of every age meet every year in order to enjoy concerts full of rhythm. Here, artists from Romania and abroad demonstrate that music is best to be heard in the Citadel Square. If you come here for a concert or simply stop for socializing or to take pictures, you must know that this area had a special importance since the Roman times. As an argument, we can tell you that here was the headquarters of the 13th Legion Gemina, the only legion that remained in Dacia for the entire period of Roman domination. The traces of the „Principia” are visible inside the Roman Museum with the same name, located on the northern side o [...]

The name of the square is given by the statue placed in the middle of it, representing a drummer dressed in the 18th-century uniform. It is the place where you can walk, ride a bicycle or rollerskate. „The square” is actually the space between two of the Alba Carolina Citadel’s bastions on the northern side of the fortification: Saint Elisabeth and Saint Charles. The fortification element placed in front of them, towards the north, is called ravelin and it is also called Elisabeth. The name of the Saint Charles bastion is referring to the emperor Charles 6th, under whose rule the Citadel was built. Even more, the monogram of the Austrian emperor, flanked by two bizarre animals, [...]

There have been two mints in the Alba Iulia Citadel: the „old” mint and the „new”. The old mint operated at the time when Alba Iulia was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania, a title which endured for nearly 150 years. The first issue of coins, which displayed the city’s logo, dates back to the early 1600s, the time of Prince Gabriel Báthory. The old mint reached its peak during the reign of his successor, Prince Gabriel Bethlen, who issued a significant amount of coins, including gold pieces. When the Austrians took over Transylvania, the mint became property of the Habsburg Empire. The now „New Mint” was located on the southern side of the Bastion Fortress, b [...]

Inaugurated in 1887, the Hungaria Hotel was the most impressive building in the so-called „Lower Town” at that time. Its position was central on the western side of the City Square. The establishment hosted numerous political and cultural events. On 30 November 1918, it embraced Romania's history when the articles of the Union Resolution were negotiated and settled in the hotel restaurant, creating the fundamental act of  the Union of Transylvania with Romania. The act was officially put to vote and agreed upon the next day in the current Union Hall. Following the Union of 1918, the hotel was named „Dacia”. This changed to „Apulum” in 1968. In the first half of the 20th cent [...]

The decision to build this monument was taken in 1926, the year carved on its marble base. The small obelisk recalls the execution of Horea and Cloşca, which occurred in Alba Iulia on 28 February 1785. The placement of the monument in the Dealul Furcilor area was not a coincidence. Its location was thought to be the place of execution for the leaders of the 1784-1785 Revolt. The city’s original execution site was in fact on the other side of the hill, closer to the present Partoş district. This information was not known at the time of the monument’s inauguration. The four metre obelisk has a short marble clad base, which is bordered by pillars bound by chains and metal balls. An [...]

Visitors who reach the Route of the Three Fortifications have the opportunity to travel back in time through two millennia, among the vestiges of three fortifications belonging to three different periods. In other words, each citadel enclosed its previous one: the Roman castrum, the medieval fortress and the Alba Carolina Citadel. The route is located in the southern and south-eastern area of the Alba Carolina Citadel, most of it giving the impression of an open-air museum. Still visible remains from the Apulum castrum can be seen in the form of its former southern gate, called „Porta principalis dextra”. It is the only gate left out of four quadrilateral gates that existed 1800 years [...]

The Batthyaneum Library is one of Alba Iulia’s places of utmost importance. Owing to its valuable collection of medieval and pre-modern books, the Batthyaneum Library has remained a true rare book museum since it was established - more than 200 years ago. The building was built in a corner of the citadel in the first half of the eighteenth century. It is a place of dual value: spiritual and cultural. It is a monument of religious architecture, since the place initially served as a church and monastery for the Trinitarians (an old Catholic order dedicated to the Holy Trinity). Then, towards the end of the same century, the building was turned into a military hospital, suffering a series [...]

One of the elite schools set up in the Alba Carolina Citadel in the 18th century was the Roman Catholic Seminary, known as Seminarium Incarnatae Sapientiae and translated as Embodied Wisdome. The theological institute was founded in 1753 by Bishop Sztoyka Zsigmond Antal (1749-1759) and functioned in several spaces within the fortification until 1792. At the initiative of Bishop Battyhâny Ignâc (1780-1798), when the Trinitarian order was abolished in 1783, the former monarchal complex building received another destination. In the church building, the bishop established a library and an astronomical observer, the current Batthyaneum Library. The building has been rebuilt and renovated in [...]