Alba Iulia was the site of modern Romania's making. There, in 1918, various notables gathered to sign the Declaration of Romanian Unification. This adjoined Transylvania to what was called Rumania (the unified Wallachia and Moldavia). Transylvania's people were quite diverse: in addition to ethnic Romanians (who were Orthodox Christians), Saxons, and Roma ("Gypsies"), there was also a considerable ethnic Hungarian population (which was Catholic). When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed during World War I the hand of Hapsburg Budapest in Transylvanian affairs was removed, and the ethnic Romanians there pushed for unification with their brethren across the Carpathians in Wallachia and Moldavia. The ethnic Hungarians who felt more in common with Hungary than with Rumania lost out, and modern Romania was born. Conversely, by losing Transylvania modern Hungary also lost more than half its population and two-thirds of its land mass.
Tensions between the two dominant ethnic groups in Transylvania are perhaps best symbolized by the competing Orthodox and Catholic Cathedrals that sit side by side in Alba Iulia. The Orthodox Cathedral (at left) was built in 1921, while the Catholic St. Michael's Cathedral dates from the 11th Century onward. That the Hungarian Catholic church is so much older than the Romanian Orthodox one helps to illustrate the cultural "Hungarian-ness" of the western regions of the modern Romanian state.
The Monkey just thought this spot made for an interesting photo, but he sincerely hopes you followed all that.
Long before it played host to the Romanian Unification, Alba Iulia, like other places the Monkey visited in Transylvania, was a fortified hilltop citadel replete with ramparts and watchtowers. Feeling a touch sentimental as it was time to bid adieu to Romania, the Monkey asked for one more photo by some medieval city walls. His wish was granted.
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