Urban transformations in 18th century Transylvania: the case of two provincial towns, Sebes and Alba Iulia

Abstract

The towns in Transylvania appeared in the first decades of the fourteenth century and went through a spectacular evolution in the Middle Ages. However, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries their development gradually decreased. In the early modern age, shortly after the inclusion of the Principality of Transylvania in the Habsburg Empire (ca. 1690), the newly acquired province had only three free royal towns and 65 boroughs. Not only the number urban settlements was low, but these had rather small size, and their economy lagged behind that of other cities of the empire. Of these, many small towns were in difficulty, having been partly depopulated and having accumulated considerable public debt. Thus, after Transylvania was incorporated into the Habsburg Empire, its cities continued their development. Most of them underwent changes in their morphology during this period, reaching a new stage in their territorial enlargement. While the inner fabric of the urban structure of most of the old cities was not affected, apart from some localities where it was only slightly changed, the peripheral areas suffered numerous transformations. The suburbs expanded dynamically. The density of buildings increased concomitantly with a considerable territorial enlargement. Some localities, such as Alba Iulia, underwent massive restructuring of the inhabited areas as new neighbourhoods and suburbs planned according to modern urban rules appeared. In this article, a detailed analysis of the urban development of two Transylvanian cities: Sebeș, free royal town during the Middle Ages, capital of the homonymous Saxon Seat, and important trade and commercial center and Alba Iulia, an episcopal seat during the medieval period and after 1542 capital of the Principality of Transylvania. After 1690, Alba Iulia developed as an important military center of the Habsburg army. At Sebeș, new suburbs were constructed beyond the medieval city walls because of internal development, with the contribution of the local authorities, at least in one case. At the same time Alba Iulia underwent a radical transformation triggered by the construction of a new fortification with bastions encircling the former medieval fortress. The urban settlement existing in the vicinity of the medieval fortress was relocated to new emplacements.