BISERICA DIN SECOLELE X-XI, DE INFLUENȚĂ BIZANTINĂ, DE LA ALBA IULIA. RESTITUIRI PRELIMINARE
The 10th-11th Centuries’ Byzantine Style Church in Alba Iulia. Preliminary Considerations

Summary/Abstract: This study’s subject is of the ruined church uncovered in the year 2011 in the southwestern corner of the Alba Iulia fortress, in front of the St. Michael Roman-Catholic Cathedral. The following text briefly relates the circumstances of its discovery, its archaeological context, its place in the history of architecture and the historical connotations. The ruins of the church were unexpectedly uncovered during the fortresses rehabilitation works, in the spring of 2011, twenty-four metres eastward of the main western entrance of the current cathedral. The ensuing four months long archaeological investigation uncovered a church with a ground plan in the shape of a Greek cross, consisting of a semicircular apse and a rectangular nave with a central square demarcated with four pillars. The foundations, in the main 1 m deep, were built mostly of river stone mixed with occasional fragments of limestone blocks and bricks salvaged from the nearby Roman ruins, all of them held together with clay or/and with mortar. A thick layer of crumbly white mortar, consisting mainly of quicklime granules, formed the basis for an elevation made of coarsely carved limestone blocks, probably mixed with bricks.

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