Documentary attested in 1324, when the Saxons rebelled against King Carol Robert of Hungary took refuge inside it. The ancient name, by Castrum Kuholom, takes its name from the type of rock that predominates in the area: basalt, but the story of the fortress is much more interesting. A lesser known fact is that the fortress is hiding some of the oldest archaeological remains on the territory of Romania, dating from the early Paleolithic and Neolithic (5,500-3,500 BC). 

Being located at the crossroads of the roads that connected Transylvania, Moldova and the Romanian Country, Rupea was in the Middle Ages an important trading and craft center, with 12 guilds.