COD LMI: AB-II-m-B-00102

Date of construction: 1908

The grand edifice was built in 1908, according to the plans of Hungarian architect Gester Kálmán. The land on which it was built was obtained from the Roman-Catholic Episcopacy, the edifice being located on the Northern side of the Szechényi Square (today the I. C. Brătianu Square). The polygonal-shaped palace has an inner courtyard, a ground floor and was two stories high, the façade of the central and lateral wings opening towards the street alignments.

Over time, the building accommodated the Court House, the Mixed Court, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Penitentiary, the Lawyers’ Bar, the Expropriation and Appropriation District Committee, the Land Register, and after 1968 the Alba County Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, the Local Council of Alba, the Alba Iulia City Hall and the editorial office of the Unirea newspaper. The Alba County Prefecture and County Council offices were situated in this building starting in 1990.

A series of events worth mentioning are connected with the building’s history. On December 2, 1918, in the festive hall of the Court House, the members of the Great National Council elected a Steering Committee and the delegation which was to travel to Bucharest in order to present the Unification Statement to King Ferdinand. On May 23, 1923, the same hall hosted the opening of the events occasioned by the 10-year anniversary from the foundation of the Reunion of Romanian Women in Alba Iulia, with the participation of Queen Mary and Princess Elena. It is here where the works of the Congress of the Romanian Former Volunteer Union took place on June 28, 1925.