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The Alba Carolina Citadel (, ) is a star-shaped fortress located in
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia (; or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; ; ) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the river Mureș (river), Mureș in the historical region of Transylvania, it has a ...
, Romania.
Its construction commenced on November 4, 1715, during the
Habsburg rule in Transylvania, and was completed in 1738. 20,000 serfs were involved in its construction, which is estimated to have cost around 3 million
florins
The Florentine florin was a gold coin (in Italian ''Fiorino d'oro'') struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time.
It had 54 grains () of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a pu ...
. The citadel was built on the site of two other fortifications: the
legionary fortress of
Legio XIII Gemina
, in English the 13th "Twin" Legion was a legion of the Imperial Roman army. It was one of Julius Caesar's key units in Gaul and in the civil war, and was the legion with which he crossed the Rubicon in January, perhaps on 10 January, in 49 B ...
(known as
Apulum), as well as the medieval
Belgrad citadel.
The shape of the citadel, an iconic element of
Vauban architecture, influenced the design of Alba Iulia's city logo when the city adopted
city branding in 2014.
The city received 47.5 million
lei in 2009 for the restoration and conservation of the citadel.
The citadel is named after
Charles VI, known as Carol VI in Romanian, who was the
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
at the time of the citadel's construction.
See also
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Seven Wonders of Romania
References
Further reading
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External links
Alba Iulia Citadel
Buildings and structures in Alba Iulia
Forts in Romania
18th-century establishments in Transylvania
Historic monuments in Alba County
18th-century architecture in Romania
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