Red Bastion — Gabriel Bethlen's Birthplace

After the Ottomans took the fortress of Lipova in 1552, Ilia became a border stronghold and was ringed with bastions. Farkas Bethlen, granted the estate by Prince Stephen Báthory, built the Red Bastion in 1582 — smaller and less exposed, designed from the start as a residence, with carved stone frames and painted decoration on the outside.

Farkas's son Gabriel Bethlen, Prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1629, was born here in 1580 — in fact in the fortress's residential tower, later demolished. In 1670 the other bastions and the walls were pulled down, and the Red Bastion, rebuilt in Romantic style after 1850, came to be identified with the prince's birthplace; today's memorial plaque was put up after the 1909 restoration.