The best museums Alba Iulia

Located on the site of the former bishop's palace, from which it incorporates elements, the Palace of the Princes of Transylvania was built in stages from the ^mid-14th century onwards. It was the home of Michael the Brave during his eleven-month rule of Transylvania between 1599 and 1600. After many years of restoration, a museum has opened within its walls. It traces the history of the building and the illustrious figures who have occupied it.

Located in the northern part of the citadel, it was founded in the late ^18th century by Bishop Ignác Batthyány. Housed in a former Baroque church, it is home to some 70,000 volumes, including 1,230 manuscripts and rare books. The most precious of these is the Codex aureus, written in gold ink on ^8th-century parchment and richly illustrated. The superb Great Hall blends neoclassical and rococo styles. It was also here, in 1792, that the country's first astronomical observatory was established, destroyed during the revolution of 1848.

It occupies two prestigious neighboring buildings in the city center: the Babylon building, erected in 1851, and the Union Hall, built in 1900. It was here that the Grand National Assembly proclaimed the union of Transylvania with Romania on December¹, 1918. The various sections cover prehistory, the Middle Ages, battles against the Turks, the revolution of 1848, the unification of the Danubian principalities in 1859 and, of course, the joining of Transylvania.