Arad is an ancient prosperous city of Transylvania located on the border with Hungary. It was often called the western gateway of Romania: just a hundred years ago, it could easily compete with such major European cultural and industrial centers as Budapest and Vienna. Even though it is not a resort but rather an industrial city, many interesting places await tourists here: beautiful parks, clean streets, and cozy restaurants with national cuisine.

But the leading city attraction is the Arad Fortress system, erected at the place where the “civilized” West meets the “wild” East. The majestic structure was built in the 18th century by the Austrian architect Ferdinand Philipp von Harsch on Empress Maria Theresa’s orders. Like all architectural masterpieces of the time, this project was designed by the French engineer, marquis Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban. It is located on the territory of the former border of two empires, the Habsburg and the Ottoman, on the site of an old Turkish fortress. The fortification system construction continued for twenty years, and thanks to the strenuous efforts of thousands of prisoners, it was completed in 1783.

The fortress has an unusual shape of a regular hexagram star shield. It hides three rows of underground bunkers intended for long-term defense and several defensive trenches flooded with water.

The citadel has often changed its purpose throughout its existence: from a military garrison to a prison and vice versa. The most notorious event that took place here in 1849 was the execution of 13 Hungarian generals, known to the world as The Thirteen Martyrs of Arad. Its most famous prisoner was Gavrilo Princip: in 1914, this Serbian student assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. This much-publicized crime was the immediate reason for the outbreak of the First World War. From 1999 to the present, a joint Romanian-Hungarian peacekeeping battalion has been stationed in the fortress. But it is quite a different story...