Weißenburg, Weissenbrich, known as Carlsburg or Karlsburg from 1718 onwards

Romanian: Alba Iulia, formerly Romanian: Bălgrad

Hungarian: Gyulafehérvár, rarely Károlyfehérvár, Erdélyfehérvár, Fehérvár; Latin: Apulum, Alba Iulia, Alba Carolina, Caropolis; Greek: (probably derived from the Dacian place-name) Apoulon

The Slavs named the settlement Bălgrad (= ‘white castle’) because of its outer walls made of white limestone. The name was adopted in Hungarian (Fehérvár) and German (Weißenburg). The names Alba Iulia and Gyulafehérvár appear in Latin documents from the 13th to 15th centuries in several variations: Alba Transilvaniae/Erdélyfehérvár, Alba Gyle, Alba Giule, Alba Iule. A ‘gyula’ was the leader of a Magyar group that settled here in the 10th century. In 1718, the town was named after Emperor Charles VI (King Charles/Károly III of Hungary).

Karlsburg is situated at 46° 4' north latitude and 21° 35' east longitude, 270 metres above sea level, approximately 100 km south of Klausenburg/Cluj-Napoca and 70 km north-west of Hermannstadt/Sibiu.

Karlsburg is situated in the centre of the Transylvanian Plateau, to the east of the Trascău Mountains, which form part of the Transylvanian Western Mountains. It lies on a terrace above the River Mieresch (Romanian: Mureș), near the point where the Ampoi (Hungarian: Ompoly) flows into the Mieresch.

Transylvania

Romania. Karlsburg is the capital of the Romanian county (județ) of Alba and has been a municipality (municipiu) since 1968. Following the establishment of the Principality of Transylvania, Weißenburg became the princely residence in 1546. It is home to the administrative centres of the Romanian planning region ‘Centre’, one of Romania’s eight economic regions. It is also the seat of the metropolitan sees of a Romanian Orthodox and a Roman Catholic archdiocese.

The town’s coat of arms consists of a triangular shield with rounded edges. The upper quarter depicts the Iron Crown of Romania on a ermine field; the left quarter, on a blue background, depicts the Golden Eagle of Wallachia. In the right-hand field, against a red background, is the head of an aurochs, representing Moldavia. The central field depicts two standing red lions with a black sword on seven hills. Above the shield is the castle crown, symbolising municipal rights. The eagle on the crown indicates the town’s status.

A Neolithic settlement and numerous artefacts from the Bronze Age have been found within the city’s present-day boundaries. During restoration work at the castle in 2011, a Roman temple containing a statue of the goddess Nemesis was discovered near the Roman Catholic cathedral, within the site of the former fort. Not far from there, the first Christian church in Transylvania, dating from the mid-10th century, was also excavated at that time. Archaeologists believe this to have been the seat of Bishop Hyerotheos, who came to the region as a missionary from Byzantium.

Following the Roman conquest of Dacia, the Dacian settlement of Apoulon was developed into the castrum, and later the municipium, of Apulum; from 107 AD onwards, it served as the centre of the Roman garrison (Legio XIII Gemina), at times the administrative seat of the province of Dacia Apulensis and, with a population of around 30,000, the most populous city in Dacia. Following the Roman withdrawal under Aurelian (271), East Germanic and semi-nomadic tribes settled here. They were succeeded by Slavs in the 7th century. The Roman town fell into ruin, but a rural settlement continued to exist within the protective ruins.^[1]

In the 10th century, a Magyar group led by a gyula established a domain here, which was forcibly incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary by King Stephen I the Saint in 1003. In 1009, a Roman Catholic diocese was founded, which still exists today. In 1241, the town was devastated by a Mongol raid; in 1277 and 1317, it was attacked by Transylvanian Saxons seeking to defend their ecclesiastical autonomy against the Bishop of Transylvania. As the town was subject to the bishop and could not compete with the free Transylvanianneighbouring Transylvanian Saxon towns, and had been subjected to repeated attacks from the Ottomans advancing from the Mieresch Valley since the end of the 14th century, Weißenburg was never able to develop into a centre of trade or craftsmanship during the Middle Ages.

The town was the seat of Fehér County ; following the county’s division, it became the seat of Alsó Fehér County (Romanian: Alba Inferioară, German: Unter-Weißenburg). The Transylvanian Diet met here on several occasions, including the gathering of 1291—which was significant for Romanian national identity—when, alongside the three estates of the Hungarian nobility, the Székelys and the Transylvanian Saxons, the Romanians also took part. The county governor (ispán) who resided here was, as a rule, also the vice-voivode of Transylvania. In 1442, Voivode John Hunyadi won a victory over the Ottomans near Weißenburg.

Following the collapse of the Kingdom of Hungary, between 1542 and 1690 the town became the seat of the Princes of Transylvania, who took up residence in the bishop’s palace following the Reformation and the expulsion of the Bishop of Transylvania. Most of the provincial assemblies of this period took place in Weißenburg. In 1542, Johann II Sigismund Szapolyai was elected King of Hungary here. In Hungarian historiography, the town is referred to as the capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, which continued to exist in the east. In 1591, the Saxon Count Albrecht Huet delivered a memorable speech in Weißenburg, in which he defended the privileges of the Transylvanian Saxons using historical and natural law arguments. In 1599, following his conquest of the region, the Wallachian Prince Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) entered Weißenburg and was elected Prince of Transylvania by the provincial assembly here in 1600. As Michael had also occupied Moldavia, the three provinces of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania – which would later form part of Romania – were now, for the first time, subject to a single ruler, albeit only briefly (until 1601). The symbolically exaggerated ‘first union of the three Romanian lands’ was to play a key role in 1918 in the convening of the National Assembly of Romanians at Karlsburg.

In 1602, the town was ravaged by the troops of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta, who brought an end to the reign of Michael the Brave. Under Prince Gabriel/Gábor Bethlen (1613–1629), Weißenburg was rebuilt in the ‘Italian style’ (Late Renaissance/Early Baroque). In 1657, the town was set alight by Tatar troops who ravaged Transylvania with the tacit consent of the Ottomans. In 1661, the Ottomans captured the town.

On the basis of the right of peoples to self-determination, at the end of the First World War, during the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, on 1 December 1918, around 10,000 representatives of the Transylvanian Romanians gathered in Karlsburg and, at a National Assembly, resolved that Transylvania should be annexed to the Kingdom of Romania. The Karlsburg Resolutions proclaimed at that time also guaranteed extensive minority rights to the other peoples of the region within the new state of Greater Romania. Following international recognition of the annexation through the Treaty of Trianon (1920), King Ferdinand I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was crowned King of Greater Romania in the Unification Cathedral (Romanian: Catedrala Sf. Treime, catedrala Reîntregirii Neamului şi a Încoronării), which had been built for this purpose, in a highly symbolic setting.

The town is governed by a mayor and a town council (21 seats). Three courts – the High Court ofAppeal (Curtea de Apel), the Alba Iulia Court of Appeal (Tribunalul Alba Iulia) and the District Court (Judecatoria) – are based in the town.

In 1785, the town had 13,928 inhabitants; by 1840, the figure had risen to 25,000. The population fell to 20,615 by 1857, before rising again to 22,761 by 1880. In 1880, 76.07 per cent of the population identified as Hungarian-speaking, 4.76 per cent as German-speaking and 12.88 per cent as Romanian-speaking. In 1910, the population was recorded as 58,481, of whom 83.38 per cent identified as Hungarian-speaking, 12.44 per cent as Romanian-speaking and 2.76 per cent as German-speaking.^[2] The highest number of German residents was reached in 1900, with 1,343 people (8.11 per cent of the total population).^[3] Until the 1990s, the German population fell sharply due to emigration. In 1992, the population reached its peak: 71,168 people. Of these, 461 were still German. In 2002, Karlsburg had 66,406 inhabitants, and in 2011, 61,045.^[4]

Karlsburg’s economy is characterised by the construction, food, textile and leather industries. The porcelain factory and wine-growing are among the town’s most important economic sectors. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989/90, and particularly following the castle’s restoration in recent years, tourism has grown in importance.

The Roman Catholic diocese had ruled the city since its foundation (1009). In 1991, it was elevated to an archdiocese. Supported by a number of princes, several Reformation movements flourished here, notably Antitrinitarianism (Unitarianism) and Calvinism. The Roman Catholic diocese was temporarily dissolved and was not re-established until 1715, under pressure from the Habsburgs. It is a matter of dispute whether Michael the Brave founded a Greek Orthodox diocese or merely a church in Karlsburg in 1600. In 1698, the Orthodox synod of 38 protopresbyters, led by Bishop Atanasie Anghel, decided, on the initiative of the Viennese court, to unite with the Roman Church. This gave rise to the Greek Catholic (Uniate) Church of the Transylvanian Romanians. The seat of the diocese of the Greek Catholic Church was initially Karlsburg, then Fogarasch/Făgăraș and Blasendorf/Blaj, where it remains to this day. However, the Orthodox Church continued to exist in parts and grew increasingly strong during the 18th century. In 1761, the Orthodox episcopal see was re-established, though it was placed under the authority of the Orthodox Metropolis of Sibiu. In 2005, the Archdiocese of Alba Iulia was assigned to the newly founded Orthodox Metropolis of Cluj-Napoca.

In 1627, Sephardic Jews – in Karlsburg alone – were granted permission to settle in Transylvania and built a synagogue in the lower town.

Religious affiliation of the town’s inhabitants: 1880:^[5] 35.60 per cent Roman Catholic, 35.69% Calvinist, 13.80% Greek Catholic, 5.35% Jewish, 4.31% Lutheran, 3.45% Unitarian (anti-Trinitarian), 1.45% Greek Orthodox; 1910:^[6] 34.08% Calvinist, 31.28% Roman Catholic, 14.22 per cent Greek Catholic, 11.59 per cent Jewish, 3.32 per cent Lutheran, 3.16 per cent Unitarian, 2.23 per cent Greek Orthodox; 1930:^[7] 38.3 per cent Orthodox, 21.4 per cent Greek Catholic, 14.7 per cent Reformed, 10.5 per cent Roman Catholic, 7.2 per cent Evangelical, 6.5 per cent Jewish; 2002:^[8] 80 per cent Orthodox, 2.6 per cent Greek Catholic, 1.2 per cent Reformed, 2.5 per cent Roman Catholic, <1 per cent Evangelical.

The Museum of the Union (Muzeul Naţional al Unirii) is housed in the former military casino (built 1851–1853) and originally displayed finds from archaeological excavations. The Union Hall, where the decision to annex Transylvania to Romania was taken in 1918, is a symbol of Romanian national identity.

The Batthyaneum Library (Biblioteca Batthyaneum) was established in 1780 in the Baroque building of a former church. It houses rare books and a collection of incunabula, including parts of the Lorsch Gospel Book, the Codex Aureus and the Codex Burgundus. In 1792, the country’s first astronomical observatory was established here.

The ‘Prichindel’ puppet theatre, which opened in 1952, is one of the best known in Europe.

On 1 May 1620, the Transylvanian Prince Gabriel/Gábor Bethlen founded a college in Weißenburg, which was transformed into the ‘Bethlen Academic College’ (Collegium Academicum Bethlenianum) in 1622; among other German scholars, the poet Martin Opitz also taught here for a time. In 1629, the college was granted the status of an academic institution, and Schools of Theology, Philosophy and Philology were established. In 1658, it moved to Strassburg on the Mieresch/Aiud. Today, Karlsburg is home to the Horea, Cloşca and Crişan National College, the Orthodox and Roman Catholic seminaries, and three higher education institutions: the “1 December 1918” University (Universitatea “1 Decembrie 1918”), the Academy of Computing Science, Technical Sciences, Economics, Law and Administration (Academia Informatizată pentru Ştiinţe Tehnice, Economice, de Drept şi Administraţie) and the Romanian Business School of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Şcoala Română de Afaceri a Camerelor de Comerţ şi Industrie).

The townscape is characterised by the heptagonal, star-shaped fortress in the Vauban style, which was begun in 1714 and reinforced with bastions at the corners. Several elaborately designed gatehouses (including the Karlstor, built around 1720) provided access to the fortress.

Until 1590, the centre of book printing in Transylvania was Kronstadt; thereafter, it was Karlsburg. It was here that, amongst other things, the first Romanian translation of the Bible was printed in 1648 and the first Romanian primer (Bucoavna de la Bălgrad) in 1699.

• Gheorghe Anghel: Cetăţile medievale de la Alba Iulia [The Medieval Castles of Alba Iulia]. In: Apulum 13 (1975), pp. 245–271.
• Thomas Nägler: Alba Iulia. In: Harald Roth (ed.): Handbook of Historical Sites. Transylvania. Stuttgart 2003 (Kröners Taschenausgabe 330), pp. 5–10.
• Ernst Wagner (ed.): Sources on the History of the Transylvanian Saxons 1191–1975. Cologne et al. 1976 (Schriften zur Landeskunde Siebenbürgens 1), pp. 258–271.

• Discobolul [The Discobolos], 1996 onwards (Literary journal, online archive 2006 onwards. URL: www.usr-alba.ro/index.php/revista-discobolul.html)

• www.apulum.ro/index-de.htm (Official website of the town of Karlsburg, available in German and English, amongst other languages)
• www.bibnat.ro/Filiala-Batthyaneum-s75-ro.htm (Website of the Batthyaneum Library – Romanian National Library/Biblioteca Batthyaneum – Biblioteca Naţională a României in Romanian)
• mnuai.ro/muzeu/ (Website of the Karlsburg Union Museum/Istoricul Muzeului Naţional al Unirii Alba Iulia in Romanian)

[1] See Nägler: Alba Iulia, p. 5.

[2] Ernő Deák: Royal Free Cities – Municipal Cities. Urban Administration in the Lands of the Hungarian Crown (1780–1918). Part II/1: Selected Materials on Urban Administration A. Vienna 1989 (Austrian Academy of Sciences. Publications of the Commission for Economic, Social and Urban History 4), p. 365.

[3] Cf. Varga Árpád: Ethnic (native language/nationality) data for the settlements of Fehér County 1850–2002 [Ethnic data (language/nationality) for the settlements of Alba County between 1850 and 2002] Online document: www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002/abetn02.pdf (Accessed 26 September 2013).

[4] See the Romanian census website www.recensamantromania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Comunicat_DATE_PROVIZORII_RPL_2011_.pdf (accessed 26 September 2013).

[5] Deák (as in note 2), p. 366.

[6] Deák (as in note 2), p. 366.

[7] Cf. Recensământul general al populației României din 29 Decemvrie 1930 [General Census of the Romanian Population of 29 December 1930]. Vol. 2, p. 522.

[8] See Varga Árpád: Ethnic (native language/nationality) data for the settlements of Fehér County, 1850–2002 [Ethnic data (language/nationality) for the localities in Alba County between 1850 and 2002] Online document: www.kia.hu/konyvtar/erdely/erd2002/abetn02.pdf (Accessed 26 September 2013).

Cornelia Guju: Karlsburg (formerly Weißenburg)/Alba Iulia. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54273.html (accessed 29 October 2015).