Fortress of Arad: the star-shaped Habsburg fort on the Mureș
The Fortress of Arad (Cetatea Aradului) is a six-bastion star fortress on the left bank of the Mureș, in the Subcetate district of Arad, western Romania. Built for Maria Theresa between 1763 and 1783, it is a rare, almost intact example of Habsburg military engineering, still used by the army today.
Arad’s star-shaped fortress took twenty years to build and, according to the sources, was never besieged in its first century of life. Behind its walls, however, was held Gavrilo Princip, the man who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
The history of the Fortress of Arad
After the Habsburgs freed Arad from Ottoman rule in the late 17th century and the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) set the border along the Mureș, the city became a focal point of the Military Frontier. Prince Eugene of Savoy first thought of rebuilding the old rectangular Turkish-built fortress on the right bank of the river. After consultations with the Empress, the decision was instead to erect a new and far stronger complex on the peninsula just south of the city, on the left bank.
Construction ran from 1763 to 1783 on plans by the Austrian general and architect Ferdinand Philipp von Harsch, and cost three million florins. Thousands of prisoners did the building work. The result was a six-pointed star with six bastions and 296 gunholes, three rows of brick walls three metres thick filled with earth, casemates and underground bunkers, flooded trenches fed by the Mureș, and an outer earth glacis. The walls ran for 3,180 metres. The main gate and the buildings inside were Baroque, and the barracks normally housed 2,940 soldiers, rising to 4,030 at most.
The fortress served as part of the inner system of defence of the empire, like the fortifications of Oradea and Timișoara. The German Wikipedia notes that it lost its strategic importance after the last Ottoman war and was never put to the test by a siege. Its main use became that of a military prison. From 1794 it held 1,200 French soldiers. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–1849 it was besieged for nine months by the Hungarian army and briefly held by it before the Habsburg troops returned. More than 500 officers were then imprisoned here, most of them sentenced to death, and 13 generals were executed on 6 October 1849 outside the east walls. The Romanian revolutionary Eftimie Murgu was also held here.
In the First World War, thousands of Serb soldiers and civilians from Bosnia and Herzegovina were detained in an improvised camp outside the fort; 4,317 of them died of typhus and ill-treatment, and a plaque at the entrance remembers them. Gavrilo Princip, who shot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914, was among the prisoners. After 1918 the fortress passed to Franco-Serbian and then, in July 1919, Romanian troops; a Soviet tank unit was stationed here until 1958. Today it is the base of the Romanian 191st Infantry Battalion and has housed the mixed Romanian–Hungarian peacekeeping battalion since 1999.
Curiosities about the Fortress of Arad
- The fortress is a star with six corners and six bastions carrying 296 gunholes in total, and its outer circuit measured 3,180 metres.
- German Wikipedia calls it the only case in which Austrian fortress engineers developed a new system of their own, with the long curtain walls laid out in a tenaille pattern.
- Thousands of prisoners built the fortress, at a cost of three million florins.
- The Franciscan church at its centre was used by friars under the patronage of St John of Capistrano; the last four monks left in 1861, when the church became a military hospital.
- Prisoners over the centuries ranged from French soldiers of the Napoleonic wars to the Romanian revolutionary Eftimie Murgu and Gavrilo Princip.
- On 6 October 1849 thirteen generals of the Hungarian revolutionary army were executed outside the east walls and are remembered there as the martyrs of Arad.
Tours near Fortress of Arad
Experiences in the area that you can book online with Viator:
Visiting the Fortress of Arad: what to know
- The fortress is still an active military base, and German Wikipedia states that it cannot be visited or photographed as such. Check whether access is possible before you go.
- The Franciscan church and its neighbouring buildings are described as largely derelict, so they are best admired from the outside.
- The whole complex sits on a peninsula in the Subcetate district; the star-shaped outline of bastions, moat and glacis is the main sight.
- Since 2000 the city has negotiated with the Ministry of Defence about turning it into a tourist centre, without success so far because of funding.
- The Water Tower in Iosefin in Timișoara, about 48 km away, is the nearest other place on this site.
Opening hours, access and conditions can change. Check before you go.
Map: where Fortress of Arad is
Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors
Photos of Fortress of Arad
Questions
Where is the Fortress of Arad?
It stands in the Subcetate district of Arad, on the left bank of the Mureș in western Romania.
When was the Fortress of Arad built?
It was built from 1763 to 1783 by order of Empress Maria Theresa, on plans by Ferdinand Philipp von Harsch.
Can you visit the Fortress of Arad?
It is a working military base and, according to German Wikipedia, cannot normally be visited or photographed. Check the current situation before you go.
What is the Fortress of Arad known for?
For its six-bastion star plan in the Vauban–tenaille style and for its long use as a military prison, notably after the 1848–1849 revolution, when 13 Hungarian generals were executed outside its walls.
Who was imprisoned in the Fortress of Arad?
Prisoners included French soldiers from 1794, Hungarian revolutionary officers in 1849, Eftimie Murgu and Gavrilo Princip.
What is inside the Fortress of Arad?
A Franciscan church and former monastery buildings, military barracks and administrative buildings; the church is in poor condition today.
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