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ALBA JULIA |
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The tension between the Hungarian and Romanian communities is
symbolized in ALBA IULIA , 14km north of Sebes, by the juxtaposition of
the Roman Catholic and Orthodox cathedrals in the heart of its citadel.
This hill top was fortified by the Romans and then by the Romanians,
before the Hungarian ruler, István I, occupied it and created the
bishopric of Gyulafehérvár - the Magyar name for Alba Iulia - in the
early part of the eleventh century, to consolidate his hold on
Transylvania. Only after World War I did the Romanians take over the
levers of power here and build their own cathedral.
The Town
Alba Iulia is dominated by its huge citadel, in effect the upper town ,
laid out in the shape of a star. It was here that the declaration of
Romanian Unification was made in 1918 and the leaders of the 1784
peasant uprising executed; the citadel also holds the tomb of the
Transylvanian warlord, Hunyadi, in the Catholic Cathedral of St Michael.
The lower town , east of the citadel, was partly cleared for "rationalization"
in Ceausescu's last years; it's been tidied up but remains less than
attractive, though there are a few low-key Art Deco buildings scattered
about.
Between 1715 and 1738, twenty thousand serfs under the direction of the
Italian architect Visconti built the Vauban-style citadel , which was
named Karlsburg in honour of the reigning Hapsburg monarch. Imperial
levies on the countryside did much to embitter the Romanian peasants,
who turned on their (mainly Hungarian) landlords in the 1784 uprising
led by Horea, Closca and Crisan. After the uprising had been crushed,
Horea and Closca were tortured to death, a martyrdom commemorated both
at the execution site south of the citadel walls, and by an obelisk
standing before the richly carved Baroque main gateway (above which is
Horea's death-cell). Crisan cheated the excecutioner by committing
suicide. To the south of the gateway, the Trinity church is a modern
wooden structure, in traditional Romanian style.
Within the citadel, the exhaustive Museum of Unification (Tues-Sun
10am-5pm) embodies the credo that Romania's history has been a long
search for national unity. Exhibits glorify the Wallachian prince
Michael the Brave , who briefly united Wallachia, Transylvania and
Moldavia under his crown in 1600. In a fit of pique, the Magyars later
demolished his Coronation Church, so, unsurprisingly, the Romanians
built a vast new Orthodox Cathedral in 1921, in which King Ferdinand and
Queen Marie were crowned the next year. The neo-Brâncovenesc cloister
through which you enter belies the medieval style of the cathedral,
filled with neo-Byzantine frescoes, including portraits of Michael and
his wife Stanca. In the ornate marble Unification Hall facing the
museum, the Act of Unification between Romania and Transylvania was
signed on December 1, 1918, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire commenced its
death throes.
The Catholic St Michael's Cathedral on the south side of Strada Mihai
Viteazu testifies to the Hungarian connection. The foundations of the
eleventh-century church have been preserved, as has a superb Maiestas
carving above a blind door in the south aisle. What you see now was
mostly built between 1247 and 1256, in late Romanesque style, with the
Gothic choir added in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; of the
later accretions, the most notable are the Renaissance Lászó and Váraday
chapels, built in 1512 and 1524 respectively. The tomb of Hunyadi , the
greatest of Transylvania's warlords, is the middle one of the three to
the right of the west door; a century after his death the tomb was
vandalized by the Turks, still bitter at their defeats at his hands.
Having been neglected for much of the twentieth century, the cathedral
is currently under restoration, though it can still be visited; if it is
closed, ask for the key at the Bishop's Palace, flanking the gate to the
new town. To the south of the Catholic cathedral stands the former
Princely Palace , where the Transylvanian Diets met between 1542 and
1690.
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