1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gyula-Fehérvár

GYULA-FEHÉRVÁR (Ger. Karlsburg), a town of Hungary, in Transylvania, in the county of Alsó-Feliér, 73 m. S. of Kolozsvár by rail. Pop. (1900) 11,507. It is situated on the right bank of the Maros, on the outskirts of the Transylvanian Erzgebirge or Ore Mountains, and consists of the upper town, or citadel, and the lower town. Gyula-Fehérvár is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and has a fine Roman Catholic cathedral, built in the 11th century in Romanesque style, and rebuilt in 1443 by John Hunyady in Gothic style. It contains among other tombs that of John Hunyady. Near the cathedral is the episcopal palace, and in the same part of the town is the Batthyaneum, founded by Bishop Count Batthyány in 1794. It contains a valuable library with many incunabula and old manuscripts, amongst which is one of the Nibelungenlied, an astronomical observatory, a collection of antiquities, and a mineral collection. Gyula-Fehérvár carries on an active trade in cereals, wine and cattle.

Gyula-Fehérvár occupies the site of the Roman colony Apulum. Many Roman relics found here, and in the vicinity, are preserved in the museum of the town. The bishopric was founded in the 11th century by King Ladislaus I. (1078–1095). In the 16th century, when Transylvania separated from Hungary, the town became the residence of the Transylvanian princes. From this period dates the castle, and also the buildings of the university, founded by Gabriel Bethlen, and now used as barracks. After the reversion of Transylvania in 1713 to the Habsburg monarchy the actual strong fortress was built in 1716–1735 by the emperor Charles VI., whence the German name of the town.