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The Alba Carolina Citadel ( ro, Cetatea Alba Carolina, hu, Gyulafehérvári vár) is a star-shaped fortress located in
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia (; german: Karlsburg or ''Carlsburg'', formerly ''Weißenburg''; hu, Gyulafehérvár; la, Apulum) is a city that serves as the seat of Alba County in the west-central part of Romania. Located on the Mureș River in the historical ...
.
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 struck from 1252 to 1533 with no significant change in its design or metal content standard during that time. It had 54 grains (3.499 grams, 0.113 troy ounce) of nominally pure or 'fine' gold with a purcha ...
. 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 the 10th, 49 BC. The legion ...
(known as
Apulum), as well as the medieval
Belgrad citadel
Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mil ...
.
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
Place branding (includes place marketing and place promotion) is a term based on the idea that "cities and regions can be branded," whereby branding techniques and other marketing strategies are applied to "the economic, political and cultural dev ...
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 ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
at the time of the citadel's construction.
See also
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Seven Wonders of Romania
Various lists of the Seven Wonders of Romania ( ro, Cele Șapte Minuni ale României) have been compiled from past to the present day, to catalogue Romania's most spectacular artificial structures.
Lists ''Evenimentul Zilei''s Seven Wonders
...
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 Romania
Historic monuments in Alba County
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