Alba Iulia

Alba Iulia , Hung. Gyulafehérvár, Ger. Karlsburg, town (1990 pop. 73,383), W central Romania, in Transylvania, on the Mureşul River. It is a rail junction and distribution center for a winemaking region, where grain, poultry, and fruit are raised. The town's light manufactures include leather goods, furniture, and footwear. Alba Iulia is the site of the ancient Apulum, founded by the Romans in the 2d cent. AD, and destroyed by Tatars in 1241. It was the seat (16th-17th cent.) of the princes of Transylvania, of a Roman Catholic bishop, and of an Eastern Orthodox metropolitan. From 1599 to 1601, Alba Iulia was the capital of the united principalities of Walachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was the site (1918) of the proclamation of Transylvania's union with Romania and of the coronation (1922) of King Ferdinand. Points of interest include an 18th-century fortress, built by Emperor Charles VI; a 13th-century Roman Catholic cathedral; and a museum and library housing exhibits from the Roman period and rare manuscripts.

Alba Iulia, Romania Apulon, Apulum, Bălgrad, Weissenburg, Karlsburg, Gyulafehérvár An ancient city, the Dacian Apulon gave way to the Latin Apulum, the name of a Roman camp where the 13th Roman Legion was based. The Slavonic Bălgrad and German Weissenburg meant ‘White Town’, perhaps because of the town's pale walls. It was given the German name Karlsburg after Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1711–40), Archduke of Austria, and King of Hungary. The present name is derived from the Latin albus ‘white’, and Julius (Gyula), a mid‐10th‐century Hungarian prince; it is merely a translation of the Hungarian Gyulafehérvár, ‘White Town of Julius’ from fehér and vár. The city was the capital of Transylvania during the 16th and 17th centuries. Prince Michael the Brave proclaimed it the capital of the three Romanian provinces of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia, thus uniting them very briefly for the first time in 1600.