Alba Carolina Citadel

Alba Carolina was built between 1715 and 1738 to a Vauban design, a seven-pointed star of earth and brick ramparts with ravelins and ditches, and it is the largest fortification of its type in the country. Inside are not barracks but a working quarter of the city: the Roman Catholic cathedral, which is the oldest and one of the most important medieval buildings in Transylvania and holds the tomb of John Hunyadi; the Orthodox coronation cathedral built in 1921; the Batthyaneum library with its old manuscripts; the princely palace; and museums, cafés and offices along cobbled streets. Six baroque gates pierce the walls, the third of them carved with an equestrian relief and the most photographed. The site has been through a thorough restoration, and a changing of the guard in eighteenth-century uniform runs daily in season. Beneath it all lie the remains of the Roman legionary fortress of Apulum.

What you actually see

• The bastion circuit - a long walk around the star-shaped ramparts.
• The Catholic cathedral - a Romanesque and Gothic building with the Hunyadi tomb.
• The baroque gates - six carved gateways, the third the most elaborate.
• The coronation cathedral - the 1921 Orthodox church in its own precinct.

When to go

April to October, when the daily guard ceremony runs and the terraces are open. The citadel is open at all hours since it is a public quarter. Summer evenings are lively; winter is quiet and the ramparts can be icy underfoot.

Honest expectations

Restoration has been extensive and some of the paving and lighting looks distinctly new. The site is large and involves a lot of walking on cobbles. Individual museums charge separately and keep different hours, several closing on Mondays. In midsummer the open ramparts are hot and shadeless.

Nearby

Râmeț gorges and Rimetea lie north in the Trascău; Sibiu is south.