Citadel From Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca

The citadel is the first Vauban fortification from Transylvania, having a star shape. Inside the fortress were different administrative buildings, a garrison and an armament warehouse. It was surrounded by bastions and an earth wall.

The construction works of the fortress located on the hill from the left bank of Somes were carried out between 1715 and 1735. The fortress plan was drawn up by the architect Giovanni Morando Visconti, who also made the fortification from Alba-Iulia.

The fortification was built with the main purpose of providing control over Cluj city, after Transylvania passed under Austrian domination, but it was also used many times as prison, especially in the period of the Revolution from 1848. Here was imprisoned and executed the famous German pastor Stephan Ludwig Roth, one of the heroes of the Revolution.

In the present there is a park in the place of the fortress, only three buildings being preserved from the fortification. A cross dedicated to the heroes of the nation was also built on Cetatuia (Cidatel) hill in 1997.