Horea, Alba
commune in Alba County, Romania
Horea (formerly Arada; German: Arroden; Hungarian: Arada) is a commune located in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 1,774 as of 2021, and is made up of fifteen villages: Baba, Butești, Dârlești, Fericet, Giurgiuț, Horea, Măncești, Mătișești, Niculești, Pătrușești, Petreasa, Preluca, Teiu, Trifești, and Zânzești.
The commune is named after Vasile Ursu Nicola, commonly known as Horea, who was born in 1731 in the village of Arada (now Horea), on Fericet Hill, and who led in 1784 the two-month-long peasant rebellion known as the Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan.
Horea commune belongs to the Țara Moților ethnogeographical region. It is nestled within the Apuseni Mountains, between the Bihor Mountains to the west and Muntele Mare to the east. Part of the Apuseni Natural Park lies on the administrative territory of the commune.
Horea is situated in the northwestern corner of Alba County, on the border with Cluj County, 26 km (16 mi) from the town of Câmpeni and 102 km (63 mi) from the county seat, Alba Iulia. It is crossed by national road DN1R, which joins Albac, 7.3 km (4.5 mi) to the south, to the town of Huedin, 73 km (45 mi) to the north.
In 2014, Școala Superioară de Aviație Civilă Flight 111 crashed in deep snow, on a hillside 3.6 km (2.2 mi) northeast of the village of Petreasa, at an altitude of approximately 1,400 m (4,600 ft).
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Horea, Alba” as commune in Alba County, Romania. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as commune in Alba County, Romania. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16425275. Authority coordinates are 46.518, 22.952. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2021, 1731, 1784 and 2014.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Horea, Alba”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Horea, Alba primary sources, Horea, Alba archive and Horea research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Horea, Alba” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.