Deva

Deva stands beside the Mureș beneath a fortress on a steep volcanic hill. First recorded as a royal castle in the thirteenth century, it guarded the river corridor into Transylvania. Its height impressed the sixteenth-century military writer Giovan Andrea Gromo, who considered it exceptionally difficult to take by artillery.

Queen Isabella frequently stayed at Deva during the struggles that followed the division of Hungary. The fortress and its estates later supported a garrison in the service of the Transylvanian rulers. In 1579 Francis Dávid, founder of the Transylvanian Unitarian Church, was imprisoned here after being condemned for heresy; he died in the fortress that November. Its role as a place of confinement thus became entwined with the religious conflicts of the principality.