Discover the history and beauty of this incredible fortress in Alba Iulia, Romania 2024

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Alba Carolina Citadel is a fortress with Vauban type bastions built at the beginning of the 18th century in the medieval town of Alba Iulia on the Citadel Hill, having the role of a strategic fortification for the defense of the Habsburg Empire against the military efforts of the Ottoman Empire[1] and for consolidation of Habsburg power at the local level
Prior to the era in which it was built, there were 2 other previous fortifications in the same place[4]: the Roman Fort of the XIIIth Legion Gemina (106 AD) and the Medieval Fortress of Bălgrad (16th-17th centuries).
Ottoman military expansion into Western Europe ended in 1683 under the walls of Vienna with the victory of the Austro-Polish armies. Victorious, the Habsburgs advanced militarily and politically to the east, liberating Hungary from Turkish domination in 1687 and Transylvania in 1688, the year after which imperial troops occupied the main local fortresses, redeveloping some of them. New Transylvanian fortifications of lesser importance were built first. The construction of large fortresses started only after in 1699 through the Karlowitz treaty, respectively after 1718 through the Passarovitz treaty, the Ottomans gave up their claims on Transylvania, the Banat of Timișoara and the Banat of Craiova (Austrian Oltenia).
The project was inspired by Marshal Prince Eugene of Savoy, who introduced the fortification systems developed by Vauban in France during the time of King Louis XIV into the Habsburg Empire. The complex was part of a wider system of fortified points, intended to provide defensive protection for the newly conquered provinces.
The preparatory works began with the topographic survey of the city and the medieval fortress in 1711.
The original plan of the fortress was sent to Vienna and approved by Prince Eugeniu of Savoy on April 18, 1714, together with the order to start the works, it was handed over on April 26, 1714 to General Stephan Steinville, the commander of the imperial troops in Transylvania. In July 1714, the general received, based on the observations from Vienna, the notification to draw up a new plan, adapted to them.
The necessary land (140 ha) was freed between 1713-1715 by the demolition of the old medieval city, which had to be moved to the eastern part of the fortress (the current lower city)
The project, from a technical point of view, belongs[1] to the Italian architect Giovano Morando Visconti. The works (estimated in total at over one million gold guilders) - were initially led by him (who died in 1717 at the age of 65, of the plague) and later by the military engineers Iosif de Quadri (1717-1727) and Konrad won Weiss (1727-1738). Although the originally designed defense system included 4 lines of fortifications and a more distant fortification placed on the Hill of the Forks - located in the vicinity[5], the final construction had only 3 lines
The actual construction - which was to become the main fortification of Transylvania - was built between 1715-1738, during the reign of Emperor Charles VI, the governors of Transylvania during that period being Sigismund Kornis (1713-1731), Ștefan Wesselényi ( 1731-1732), Francisc Anton Wallis (1732-1734) and Ioan Haller (1734-1755).