Cetatea Aradului

Arad, Romania, Romania

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Cetatea Aradului is a star-shaped fortress in Arad, Romania, on the left bank of the Mureș River.

Built from 1763 to 1783 under Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa's orders, it followed designs by General Ferdinand Philipp von Harsch in the advanced Vauban-Tenaille style, resembling a six-pointed star with a two-mile circumference.

Constructed using serf labor, including thousands of Romanians who hand-relayed bricks from Jimbolia, it featured three rows of underground casemates, floodable trenches, 296 artillery positions, pentagonal redoubts, and baroque inner buildings like a church and wells for self-sufficiency.

Positioned strategically on a peninsula to guard against Ottoman threats, it later served as a military garrison and prison—holding 1,200 French soldiers from 1794—before becoming headquarters for a Romanian-Hungarian battalion in 1999.