Like most places in Transylvania, Alba Iulia has held different names throughout its history, as well as distinct names used among the three main ethnic groups of the province. Romanians called the city Bălgrad (White Fortress), the Hungarians named it Gyulafehérvár (Gyula’s White Fortress) and the Saxons used the name Weissenburg (White Fortress). The white fortress in all three names refers to the ruins of the Roman fortification of the Thirteenth Twin Legion, which existed there before the medieval city which was to become Alba Iulia was founded.
The name of a place forms a significant part of its cultural heritage. Ideally, a name should have stability over the centuries and resist attempts by various ruling administrations to change it. The constructions, street networks and old names of streets and squares contribute to the unique and unrepeatable character of the locality and give an identity to the places where we live and preserve the experiences of every generation.
Like other European urban localities with a long history, the development of Alba Iulia can be traced back to Antiquity; specifically to the second century AD, when two settlements appeared in the proximity of the fort of the Thirteenth Twin Legion and were soon granted the status of cities, named Colonia Aurelia Apulensis and Colonia Nova Apulensis . Several centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire and the subsequent dissolution of urban life, a medieval city was founded in the same place. The city’s development was, from this point onwards, influenced by the political, economic, and military features which marked each historical period. The following paragraphs detail the development of the city’s name in each epoch, as well as the meaning of its variants.
From Apoulon to Apulum
After the conquest and incorporation of Dacia by the Roman Empire (105-106 AD), the Thirteenth Twin Legion encamped itself in the centre of the new province, not far from the Dacian fortress Apoulon, on a terrace of Mureș River. Around the legion’s stone fortification developed the aforementioned civilian settlements, which evolved through various stages of urban development, eventually acquiring the statutes of municipium and colonia, and taking their names from the Dacian fortress: named Colonia Aurelia Apulensis and Colonia Nova Apulensis.
After the withdrawal of the Roman army and administration from Dacia in the second half of third century AD, life in the two cities in Apulum continued until the fourth century, as indicated by archaeological findings, although the population and the cities’ economic power dwindled. Eventually, the existing urban spaces gradually became too large for the decreasing number of inhabitants. Although the remaining population tried to adapt to the new conditions, it was not possible to use the city spaces in their entirety and finally, they were abandoned and even their names were erased from memory, to be rediscovered only after one thousand years, in the Renaissance period.
From Apulum to Bălgrad
Despite this disintegration, the old Roman fortification played an important role in the ninth and tenth centuries, when the Bulgarians extended their domination to the Mureș River, seeking to control the exploitation and distribution of salt reserves from this area. This was probably the time when the name Bălgrad (White Fortress) appeared. The powerful impression made by the walls of Roman fortification and the ruins of the former city of Apulum no doubt influenced the formation of this name.
The earliest record of this name dates back to the 1070s, when a chronicle mentions the Bishop Frank Bellegradensis. Subsequently, a charter from 1097 mentions a certain Mercurius from Bellegratae.
Gyulafehérvár, Weissenburg, Alba Iulia
After the Bulgarian domination came Hungarian rule, from the end of tenth century. The beginning of this period is synchronous with the legend of the foundation of the medieval city of Alba Iulia. According to this legend, an important Hungarian ruler, Gyula, discovered the former Roman city, and was so impressed by the stone buildings still standing that he decided to settle there. The name of the city was changed to Gyulafehérvár, that is Gyula’s White Fortress, thus borrowing the name of its “discoverer”.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Latin charters named the city as either Alba Transilvana, (or sometimes the shortened version, Alba) or as Alba Gyule, from which later originated the current form Alba Iulia. The local issuers of written documents preferred to use the short form Alba, while the royal chancellery used the latter version to avoid confusion with a homonymous city from the western part of the Hungarian realm. The names Alba Transilvana and Alba Gyule were differentiated from Alba Regalis (Székesfehérvár, Hungary). By the fourteenth century, the name of the city had developed to Alba Iule, and by the sixteenth century, Latin documents used the form Alba Iulia.
In vernacular, the city was called Fejérvár (former Hungarian spelling) by Magyars and Weissenburg by Germans, both names meaning ‘white fortress’. Romanians from Transylvania continued to use the old Slavic term, Bălgrad, which had been used from before the arrival of Hungarians.
Carlsburg, Alba Carolina
In the first decades of the eighteenth century, soon after the establishment of Austrian domination in Transylvania, Alba Iulia went through some important urban transformations, mainly due to the construction of the Vauban fortress on the emplacement of the former fortification, integrating the area into a broader system of defence of the eastern borders of the Habsburg Empire. The construction of the new defensive ensemble involved not only the demolition of the older city outside the medieval fortification, whose inhabitants were relocated on an eastern emplacement, but also the change of the city’s name to Karlsburg/Carlsburg, after Emperor Charles VI (1711-1740). The new fortress, erected during his rule, had an important propagandistic meaning beyond its military role. To maintain a connection with the city’s past, in parallel with its new name, the Latin form, Alba Carolina, was used to evoke the memory of the glorified emperor.
The new name was employed only in official documents issued by the authorities and administration; in the daily speech of Transylvanians, the old name of the city continued to be used. This situation continued into the nineteenth century, with documents recording the variants Fehérvár/Gyulafehérvár (Hungarian), and Bălgrad/Belgradu (Romanian) alongside the official Karlsburg/Carlsburg.
Alba Iulia
After the unification of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918, the new Romanian authorities decided the official name of the city would be Alba Iulia. Despite this, the other two names, Fehérvár/Gyulafehérvár and Weissenburg, continued to be used by the Magyar and German communities in Transylvania. (C.A.)
