Cetatea Trascăului

Cetatea Trascăului was built around 1296 by Vice-Voivode Thorotzkay of Trascău on the steep summit of a limestone klippe, in response to the Tatar invasion of 1241, during which the villages in the valley had suffered heavy damage. On the northern tower, about 20 m tall, there is a stone plaque placed in 1832, attributing the construction to Illés Thorotzkay, Vice-Voivode of Transylvania, at the end of the 13th century. The fortress went through several events in the 15th century: in 1470 it was confiscated by King Matthias Corvinus and given to the Voivode of Transylvania, returning to the Thorotzkay family in 1510. In 1514 it was devastated by the peasants led by György Dózsa. In 1703 Austrian imperial troops under General Tiege destroyed the fortress, because the Thorotzkay family had opposed the annexation of Transylvania by the Habsburgs. A good part of the enclosure walls and the two side towers, built of local limestone, survive. Between 2023 and 2026 the ruins were consolidated and fitted out for visitors with European funds through Romania's Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and the fortress reopened in August 2026. From the hill you can see the Trascău Depression, Piatra Secuiului and the villages of Rimetea and Colțești. Cetatea Trascăului is a historical monument (LMI code AB-II-m-A-00208). Did you know that less than four kilometres from the fortress, on Râmeți hill, a second fortification with the same purpose, guarding the road through the valley, was built, of which only faint traces remain today?