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DEVA |
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The capital of Hunedoara county, DEVA , 30km west of Orastie, lies
on the east side of a citadel, built during the thirteenth century and
transformed into one of Transylvania's strongest fortifications on the
orders of the warlord, Hunyadi. The citadel crowns a volcanic hill in
the shape of a truncated cone - supposedly the result of a stupendous
battle between the djinns (spirits) of the Retezat mountains and of the
plain, hence the fort's old nickname, the "Citadel of the Djinn".
Although the mason charged with building it reputedly immured his wife
in its walls in order to guarantee his creation's indestructability, the
citadel was destroyed in 1849, when the magazine blew up after a four-week
siege by Hungarian rebels, leaving only the ramparts and barracks
standing. The tough 184-metre climb to the citadel is rewarded with
expansive views over the Mures valley - which enters a defile between
the Metaliferi and Poiana Rusca mountains west of Deva.
In the park at the bottom of the hill - beneath the Hollywood-style
"Deva" sign on the citadel - is the seventeenth-century Magna Curia
palace of Voivode Gábor Bethlen, under whom Deva was briefly capital of
Transylvania. Inside, a History Museum displays archeological finds from
the Orastie mountains; the museum is closed for restoration for the next
few years, but you can at least see some Roman stonework languishing in
the long grass outside. The adjacent building houses a better-than-average
natural history museum (Tues-Sun 9am-5pm), and there's a tiny art
gallery in the prefecture opposite, on the corner of Strada Avram Iancu.
Heading down this street, you'll come to the Orthodox cathedral of Sf
Nicolae, dating from 1893. To the north on Strada Progesului is the
Franciscan church, built by a group of Bulgarian Catholics who arrived
here in 1710, fleeing Turkish persecution; the Bulgarians have now
vanished and the church has been taken over by the local Hungarian
Catholics.
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