Alba Iulia trip planner

Alba Iulia is a city located on the Mureş River in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 63,536. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom and the latter Principality of Transylvania. Alba Iulia is historically important for Romanians, Hungarians and Transylvanian Saxons.The city administers four villages: Bărăbanț (Borbánd), Micești (Ompolykisfalud), Oarda (Alsóváradja) and Pâclișa (Poklos).NamesDuring the Roman period the settlement was called Apulum (from the Dacian Apoulon, mentioned by Ptolemy). When the settlement upon Roman ruins became the seat of a dukedom in the 10th century, the population may have been Slavic. The early Slavic name of the settlement was Bălgrad (meaning "white castle" or "white town"). The old Romanian name of the town was Bălgrad, originated from Slavic.The Hungarian name Gyulafehérvár is a translation of the earlier Slavic form, meaning "white castle of the Gyula" or "white city of Julius". Its prefix "Iulia" ("Julius") refers to Gyula, a mid-tenth-century Hungarian warlord who was baptized in Constantinople.