Breakfast.
The Alba Carolina Citadel is the largest citadel in Romania, and it was built between 1715 and 1738 in Alba Iulia, at the center of Romania. The site on which it was built was previously home to another two fortifications, the Roman Castle of Legio XIII Gemina, and the Bălgrad Medieval Citadel.
The medieval fortress was part of a fortification system created by Prince Eugene of Savoy designed to ensure the defenses of the newly conquered provinces of the Habsburg Empire. It is one of the most representative Vauban bastion fortification in Transylvania, and it became one of the Roman Empire’s main fortifications in the area.
We will head towards the ‘center of the Earth’, trough the Transylvanian salt deposits. Turda has been used for mining salt for hundreds of years, being mentioned for the first time in 1075. In the beginning, the salt was mined manually, using pickaxes, hammers, chisels, and steel wedges. It was then carried to the surface in wicker baskets, and as the years advanced, in more modern vessels. The workers of the mine also tried using explosives, but the salt that resulted was much finer than they needed, so they abandoned the idea.
After its closing in 1932, the salt mine was forgotten until the Second World War when it was reopened and used as an anti-aircraft shelter. Up to the year 1992, when the salt mine was opened to the public. Until then, it got the status of the touristic site. The first 500 meters of Franz Joseph conveyance gallery had been used for quite a long time, as a warehouse for cheese storage.
Overnight in Cluj Napoca.