ALBA DISTRICT [AB]

Alba District

Map of Alba District

ALBA District is located in Central-West Transylvania occupying an area of 6231 square kilometers. Lying on the mid-course of the Mures River, the district is guarded to the North by the Western Carpathian Mountains (Apuseni Mountains) and to the South by the Parâng Mountains (mountain range in the Transylvanian Alps). The district is crossed by the rivers Cugir, Sebes, Aries and Ampoi. Gold and silver ores have been exploited in the Apuseni Mountains since the ancient times. At Rosia Montană, a mining town known for its ancient Roman mines, recently there has been discovered the largest gold deposit in Europe. In the north-eastern part of the district is the rich wineregion of Târnave, renowned for its wine and champagne. The pictoresque region north-west of Alba-Iulia, in the Apuseni Mountains between Abrud and Brad, is known as the land of the "motzi", mountaineous people with unique ancient traditions and customs that have fought for centuries in many bloody rebellions in order to keep their independence from the Hungarian and later Austrian Habsburg domination.

In this region at Găina Mountain ("Hen" Mountain) an old traditional event called the Girls' Fair takes place every year on the day of Saint Ilie - the 20^th of July - with beautiful display of traditional costumes and dances, where according to tradition young men will come to look for that special girl to marry. The Apuseni Mountains or Western Carpathians located in the north are ranges of small mountains, the highest peaks reaching only as high as 1900 meters altitude. However, these pictoresque mountains house many of Europe's most unique and unexplored caves and many wild and beautiful trails. The Parâng Mountain Range in the Transylvanian Alps, offer good skiing terrain with good slopes and beautiful wild moutain scenery with dense woods and alpine pastures inhabited by shepherds. The Sebes valley, also known as the "Valley of the Beauty" is a pictoresque region in the Parâng Mountains with water dams and narrow passages leading up to Oasa and Surianu mountain lodges.

Myths and legends haunt these ancient lands and many archeological discoveries speak of misterious old civilisations. Archeological evidence dates the human inhabitance in the region to the Early Paleolithic times. Life flourished in the region throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. In the 1^st millenium BCE, during the Iron Age, a important military and economic center developes at Piatra Craivii, near Alba-Iulia, which later becomes the Thracian urban and military center of Apoulon mentioned by the ancient greek historian Ptolemaeus. After the Roman conquest, the city flurishes once again under the name of Apulum, and because of its importance and prosperity it is nicknamed "Little Rome".

During the Middle Ages, the roman-catholic bishop's residence is established in the region in Alba-Iulia. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the region was the stage of bloody peasant rebellions against the Austro-Hungarian harsh domination, such as the 1784 rebellion lead by Horea, Closca and Crisan, three heroic figures originating from the Apuseni Mountains, which were tortured and executed in a dreadful public display. The town of Alba-Iulia houses the unification of the three countries (Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia) in 1600 under Michael the Brave and once again in 1918, into one Romanian National State, under King Karl Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen.

Alba District has a vast tourist potential and offers a variety of attractions from sites of historical and cultural importance to sites of rare natural beauty.