The Revolution Square

Versiune în română

The Revolution Square (Piaţa Revoluţiei in Romanian) is a square in downtown Bucharest, located on Victory Road (Calea Victoriei in Romanian). In previous posts I’ve showed some of the buildings surrounding the square and the square’s artwork but I though I’ll write a few words about the square itself. Before 1989 it was known as the Palace Square (Piaţa Palatului in Romanian) because of the former Royal Palace which is located in the square. The name changed after 1989 to commemorate the Romanian Revolution because it was here, in the Revolution Square, that the collapse of Ceauşescu’s regime started. This is the place where Ceauşescu had his last speech on December 21 1989, from a balcony of the former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, in front of 100.000 people, a mass meeting that turned into a protest demonstration and led to the popular revolt that followed. Ceauşescu and his wife fled the building by helicopter, never to return. The former Royal Palace (now the National Museum of Art), the Athenaeum, the University of Bucharest Library, Kretzulescu Church, Iuliu Maniu statue, the Rebirth Memorial are all located on the square. Prior to 1948 the square also hosted an equestrian statue of Carol I of Romania. It was created in 1939 by the sculptor Ivan Meštrović and destroyed by the communists when they took power. In 2005 the City Hall decided to recreate the statue and sculptor Florin Codre was assigned for the work but I didn’t hear any update on the project lately.