The city of Alba Iulia is able to interest any tourist, because he does not occupy the sights. This is a wonderful medieval fortress, as well as palaces of nobles, Gothic churches and city gates. The city has a wonderful Unification Museum, the exhibits of which are an interesting page from the history of Transylvania.
The old town is dominated by the imposing structure of the fortress, erected in these places in the distant 1714-1738 years. The fortress was built immediately after Transylvania became one of the provinces of the growing Austrian Empire.
The project of the fortress was created by the Italian architect and fortifier Giovanni Morando Visconti, but later the Austrian general Weiss slightly changed it. The fortress occupies a huge area of 70 hectares and has a perimeter of 12 kilometers. The fortress walls completely cover the territory of the old city with a huge cathedral.
If you walk along Octavian Gogi Street north from the station to the intersection with Mihai the Brave Street, and then turn left towards the citadel, you will soon see the first gate of the castle, which is decorated with amazing compositions of sculptures on the theme of Greek mythology. To the left of the main gate of the fortress there is a monument dedicated to the heroes of the 1784 uprising. Alba Iulia Fortress is an excellent example of medieval military architecture.
Seven powerful bastions are put forward far on the forefront of the fortress. At the same time, the builders of the fortress did not limit themselves only to the tasks of defense - they immediately decided to add as much beauty and expressiveness to the appearance of the fortress with the help of special artistic elements. For example, the gates through which one could enter the church were decorated from the very first day as triumphal arches. These arches are decorated with a wonderful bas-relief, which was dedicated to scenes from Greek mythology.
In addition, the tower of the main gate is decorated with the coat of arms of Emperor Charles VI, as a memory of the fact that the city once bore the name of this autocrat - Karlsburg.
