The imposing Alba Carolina Citadel, richly carved with sculptures and reliefs in a baroque style, is the dominant sight of the city of Alba Iulia, and worth stopping to see for a couple of hours. It was originally constructed in the 13th century, although the fortress you see today was built between 1714 and 1738.
Str Mihai Viteazul runs up from the lower town to the first gate of the fortress, adorned with sculptures inspired by Greek mythology. From here, a stone road leads to the third gate of the fortress, dominated by an equestrian statue of Carol VI of Austria . Above the gate is Horea’s death cell (Celula lui Horea), where the leader of the great 1784 peasant uprising awaited his unpleasant end.
Just before you enter the third gate, a footpath leads 500m south to an out-of-sight Orthodox church . The wooden church, brought to Alba Iulia in 1990 from Maramureş, stands on the site of a former Metropolitan cathedral built by Mihai Viteazul in 1597 and destroyed by the Habsburgs in 1713.
Inside the gates, about 200m west in a park, is the Soviet-style 22.5m Costozza monument , which commemorates the soldiers and officers of the 50th infantry regiment of Alba Iulia, who were killed while fighting in the Habsburg army against Italy in the battle of Costozza in 1866.
Just west is the Unification Hall (Sala Unirii; 1900), built as a military casino. In this hall the act of unification between Romania and Transylvania was signed during the Great Assembly of 1 December 1918.
Facing the hall from the south is a large equestrian statue of Mihai Viteazul , ruler of Romania from 1593 to 1601. On 1 November 1599 he visited Alba Iulia to celebrate the unification of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania, a union that crumbled after his assassination in 1601. Behind the statue is the Princely Court , former residence of the princes of Transylvania, which was built in several stages from the 16th century onwards.
Immediately west is the 18th-century Roman Catholic Cathedral , built on the site of a Romanesque church destroyed during the Tartar invasion of 1241. Many famous Transylvanian princes are buried here.
Inside the former Babylon building (1851) is the impressive Unification Museum , one of Romania's most interesting museums. Many Roman sculptures, votives and pillars found in the area are subtitled in English. Don’t miss the section devoted to the peasant revolutionaries Cloşca, Crişan and Horea. The highlight is a replica of the wheel used to crush Cloşca and Horea to death in 1785 (Crişan killed himself in prison before he could be tortured to death).
Near the western entrance of the citadel, the highly impressive Orthodox Cathedral (originally known as the ‘Church of the Coronation’) was built in 1921–22 and is designed in the shape of a Greek circumscribed cross, and surrounded by a wall of decorative colonnades enclosing its peaceful gardens within. A 58m-tall bell tower marks the main entrance to the complex.
There are English and French information panels placed throughout the citadel, making it easy to delve into its history without a guide.
