Alba Iulia is the site of the ancient Apulum, founded by the Romans in the 2nd cent. A.D., and destroyed by Tatars in 1241. It was the seat (16th–17th cent.) of the princes of Transylvania, of a Roman Catholic bishop, and of an Eastern Orthodox metropolitan.
From 1599 to 1601, Alba Iulia was the capital of the united principalities of Walachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia. It was the site (1918) of the proclamation of Transylvania's union with Romania and of the coronation of King Ferdinand in 1922.
Today, many Romanians consider Alba Iulia to be the spiritual capital city of Romania.