Attractions in Transylvania

Romania's largest bastion fortress, a seven-pointed star built by the Habsburgs in 1715–1738 at Alba Iulia; baroque gates, cathedrals, the Union Hall and a changing of the guard, all with free access.

The Orthodox cathedral inside Alba Carolina Fortress, built in 1921–1922 for the coronation of Ferdinand and Marie as king and queen of Greater Romania, with a 58 m bell tower and royal portraits in fresco.

Romania's oldest and longest cathedral, Romanesque and Gothic, at the heart of the Alba Carolina Fortress; it holds the tomb of John Hunyadi and the first Renaissance chapel in Transylvania.

An 800 m wall of red clay and sandstone on the edge of Sebeș, carved by rain into columns, towers and earth pyramids, a badlands landscape rare in Romania.

The ruins of a Dacian fortress on a wooded hill above the Sebeș valley: limestone walls in the murus dacicus technique and the base of a tower house, the only Dacian UNESCO site in Alba County.

An undeveloped cave in the Bihor Mountains near Casa de Piatră: a huge portal, tens of metres high, through which the Gârdișoara stream vanishes underground.

An 18 m waterfall spilling down a limestone wall in the Țara Moților region, near the village of Nemeși in Vidra commune; a landscape reserve 500 m from the road to Avram Iancu.

A chain of travertine cascades on the Șipote stream, below the Bedeleu cliffs in the Trascău Mountains: the last one drops straight into the Arieș by the DN75, the upper ones are reached on a nature trail from Sălciua.

County road DJ107I, 78 km through the Trascău Mountains between Aiud and Bucium, near Abrud: villages scattered along the ridges, thatched houses and views from over 1,100 m.

National road DN1R, 80 km through the Apuseni Mountains between Huedin and Albac: past Lake Beliș-Fântânele, through the Moți villages and over the Ursoaia Pass, at about 1,320 m.

A 70–80 m chain of waterfalls, with a 25 m main drop, plunging into a huge sinkhole in the Trascău Mountains and vanishing underground; seen from a wooden balcony a short walk from the road.

A waterfall of about 15 m on the Vârciorog stream, tucked into a spruce forest below Piatra Grăitoare, near Arieșeni; reached up a wooded valley on foot or by horse cart.