Alba Iulia is the town that Romanians think of as the birthplace of their country. On 1 December 1918, a great national assembly met here and voted for the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, an event celebrated every year as the national day. Four years later, in 1922, King Ferdinand and Queen Marie were crowned in a cathedral built for the purpose, and the fortress became a symbol of the modern Romanian state.
The fortress itself is older and more intricate. Built between 1715 and 1738 by the Habsburgs, in the style of the French engineer Vauban, it is a huge star-shaped citadel with seven bastions, ramparts, gates and ditches, one of the largest fortifications of its kind in southeastern Europe. A ravelin is a triangular outwork set before a curtain wall to cover the gate, and Capistrano is one of several such works, with grassy banks and stone walls that now serve as a park. The gates are ornamented with Baroque sculpture, and on summer mornings, guards in period uniform march along the walls.
Underneath the star lie older layers. The Romans founded Apulum here, a major legionary base, and the Dacian predecessors, the medieval Transylvanian princes and Michael the Brave, who briefly united Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania in 1600, all left their mark. Michael is remembered in the town by a monument near the fortress.
For riders, Alba Iulia is an easy base, with a calm centre and a ring of quiet roads along the Mureș river and into the surrounding wine hills. The citadel streets are partly cobbled, with limited vehicle access, so park outside and walk. Fuel and services are plentiful in a town of some sixty-five thousand people, and cafés and restaurants line the streets near the main gate. Try the local wines, including fresh whites from the Alba vineyards, or a bowl of ciorbă, a sour soup, in one of the cellars.
The fortress is open from morning to evening, and evenings in summer have a pleasant crowd.