"Alba Carolina" Festung, 1714

[Wings_of_wrath]

Like you already know from other topics posted on this forum, this weekend me and my brother made a trip to Alba Iulia, and, being the fortifications nut I am, I couldn't miss the chance to take a tour of the largest and best preserved Vauban fortresses in Romania (there is a better preserved one at Arad, but it’s by far smaller)

Anyway, after visiting the “The Route of the Three Fortifications” and talking to our fellow reenactors, we headed down the main gate (the IIIrd gate, as it’s known, since it was the main gate of the innermost -3rd- fortification ring) and started circling the building in a clockwise manner (the other side was barred since it’s part of a military base).
To make this easier to follow, I’ve decided to attach a satellite map of the area, on which each of the pictures is listed chronologically:



First off, the flanking casemates to the right of the road, heading out the gate (right side only, on the other side the wall is devoid of any openings)



Then, the south east corner of the 3rd fortification ring (although the terraces of the 2nd and 1st rings are still in place, their walls have been long stripped and used as building material, so they are not a very spectacular sight). Please note the Baroque carvings that ornate each corner, just below what I assume is the guard platform.



Moving on, we reach a section of the outer bastion where the masonry has been stripped away, revealing the intricate construction, as well as a hidden tunnel just behind the wall.



On the other side, two artillery platforms serve as extra protection, each accessible from the main fortress by posterns, allowing for quick redeployment of troops in case of an enemy breach.



Turning around, we are confronted with the entrance to one of the tunnels in the outer bastion (there is a symmetrical one on the other side), guarded by a flanking casemate. Although the tunnel parallel to the trench has collapsed, we ventured into the one leading away from it, but we halted after 50 meters or so, since we had been previously warned about the precarious state of the old masonry. That, and the fact the tunnel was littered with used condoms and porn magazines…



Going round the corner of yet another bastion, we came to this really strange wall strewn across the trench. It’s not as old as the fort itself, but its construction is typical 19th century, so I bet it’s at least 100 years old.


It’s purpose can be easily discerned once we passed it: there, in the outer wall, symmetrical to a central bastion, lie a couple of barracks for the defending garrison. I’m pretty sure these would have been used only in times of war, since the normal complement of the fort lived in “normal” barracks on the inside, but nonetheless, they exist, and are remarkably similar to those present on the forts around Bucharest, despite the 150 year difference.

[Wings_of_wrath]

Although they are barred off, I managed to take a picture of the inside, revealing a strangely luminous and roomy interior.



Behind the barracks, access to the outer bastion ring could be gained trough a maze of narrow courtyards and passageways guarded by flanking casemates, one of which is used as a warehouse for old military equipment.





Back in the trench, looking towards the right hand side barracks, as well as the two artillery platforms in front of the main fort.



The right hand side courtyard. On the left can be seen the side entrance to the flanking casemates that guard the entrance, and on the wall in front several small openings both for water and evacuation and flanking fire into the trench. (Tunnels line both sides of the wall, and although most of the entrances were barred, we managed to find one that wasn’t and crept a few hundred meters along the tunnel. Nothing to see there, except mud and the occasional rubbish)



Looking down from the central bastion into the left courtyard.



One of the oddest things we found, a staircase that leads nowhere, at the south-western tip of the fortress: (probably there used to be a metal stair leading up from it to the top of the wall at one time, but now it’s long gone)