Alba Iulia wears its history in layers, and the bottom layer is Roman. The Legio XIII Gemina, the legion that held the heart of Dacia, was based here for over a century and a half, and around its fortress grew Apulum, one of the largest cities of the province. Excavations inside the modern citadel have revealed parts of the legionary fortress, and a Roman house, a domus, with its foundations, rooms and heating system, has been uncovered nearby, showing how the wealthier inhabitants lived. Together with the rest of the Dacian limes, these remains are now on the World Heritage list.
The second layer is the one you see first: the huge star-shaped citadel of Alba Carolina, built by the Habsburgs in the early eighteenth century in the style of Vauban, with seven bastions, deep ditches and monumental gates covered with carvings. Inside are the Roman Catholic cathedral of St Michael, one of the oldest in Transylvania, the tomb of the great fifteenth-century commander John Hunyadi, and the Orthodox coronation cathedral, where King Ferdinand and Queen Marie were crowned in 1922. Alba Iulia is a symbolic city for Romanians: in 1600 Michael the Brave briefly united the three Romanian principalities here, and on 1 December 1918 the assembly that proclaimed the union of Transylvania with Romania met here, which is why 1 December is the national day.
The riding around is varied. To the south, the Sebeș valley leads to the start of the Transalpina, the highest road in Romania, crossing the Parâng mountains at over two thousand metres, a spectacular ride that is open only in the summer months. To the east, the Saxon villages such as Câlnic, with its fortified keep, are reached along quiet country roads through the vineyards and hills. North and west, the Apuseni mountains offer forested valleys and winding roads. The A1 motorway passes close to the city and requires a vignette, the rovinieta.
Alba Iulia is a city of about seventy thousand people with fuel, hotels, restaurants and workshops. The citadel has many cafés and terraces, especially beautiful in the evening when the walls are lit up. The changing of the guard ceremony takes place at the citadel gates at midday. Try the local wines from the vineyards of Alba and Jidvei, which produce some of the best whites in Romania.