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TRANSYLVANIA’S BASTION
VELICAN HOUSE
October 23, 2017
THE 7TH GATE OF THE ALBA CAROLINA CITADEL
October 24, 2017TRANSYLVANIA’S BASTION
The „Saint Capistrano” bastion was named after Giovanni da Capistrano (1386-1456), an Italian franciscan monk with a prodigious religious activity (focused on the Hebrew as well); in the last year of his life he led the Christian armies along with Iancu de Hunedoara against the Turks in the battle of Belgrade. He had the same faith as Iancu de Hunedoara, dying of plague shortly after the victory. He was sanctified in 1690.
The bastion was also named „Transylvania” and in the 19th century when the identification of the bastions was done using Roman numbers, it was the „Bastion VII”.
The bastion is built where the praetorian gate of the Roman castrum used to be, used during Middle Ages as the Saint George Gate. Thus, the foreign travellers who arrived in Alba Iulia in the 16th and the 17th centuries noticed this gate had a bas-relief with the she-wolf feeding the twins, Romulus and Remus. Through this gate, from which nothing was preserved, Michael the Brave is supposed to have entered triumphantly in Alba Iulia, on November 1st, 1599. The bastion practically contains the barbicane of that gate or what was preserved from that barbicane.
Inside, on the barbicane line, that is to say where „PUB 13” is, a gunpowder deposit was set, an over 30 m in diameter circular room. During the siege on the citadel in 1849, the place was transformed into a mill. After that, the place had other interesting purposes: after 1968 here was the „wine cellar of the citadel” and during the Revolution in 1989 some of the Securitate representatives were hidden in order to escape the fury of the population.
The faces of the bastion are about 130 m and form a 120 degree angle, being the largest of the 7 bastions.
Scientific consultant: Tudor Roșu, PhD historian
Translation made by: Ciprian Dobra, PR expert
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 the corners towards the exterior. The straight wall that unites Saint Capistrano with the other bastions is called „curtain”. The bastion is also known as „Transylvania” bastion. On top of the bastion we have the coat of arms of Transylvania and Hungary – the double cross coming out of a crown placed on a hill.
Two centuries ago, when the bastions were identified using Roman numbers, this one wore the number „VII”. The count begins from the 3rd gate towards south, clockwise, and this one is the last. The interior space of the bastion was arranged and used according to the necessities of the time: gunpowder deposit during the Austrian domination, mill during the siege in 1849, wine cellar after 1968. Nowadays, you can find „Pub 13” within the place (http://www.pub13.ro/index.php/istoric).
The bastions are just some of the elements that prove the craftsmanship of the builders who worked at the construction of the Alba Carolina Citadel, the largest citadel in Romania, still standing after 300 years.
