The upward movement
A bronze figure with both arms outstretched.
Catalin Antohi — CC BY 2.0 · Mister No — CC BY 3.0 · Cristian.bercaru — CC BY-SA 3.0 ro · Валерий Дед — CC BY 3.0
The Monument to the Heroes of the Air stands at the centre of a roundabout on Bulevardul Aviatorilor in northern Bucharest, and is among the finest pieces of public sculpture in the city and among the most overlooked. It was unveiled in 1935 in memory of the Romanian airmen killed in the First World War. The sculptor **Lidia Kotzebue** began it — one of the first professional women sculptors in Romania — and Iosif Fekete completed it after her death. The work itself is superb: a bronze figure rising with both arms outstretched above a stone base, with human forms at the foot clinging and looking upward. The whole movement is ascent, and the effect is deliberate — the symbolism is about flight and loss together rather than victory. It is seen from outside only, standing in the middle of a junction, but it is on the natural route north towards Herăstrău Park and the Village Museum. **The avenue itself is among Bucharest's handsomest**, with its trees and villas.
A bronze figure with both arms outstretched.
Among Bucharest's handsomest avenues.
Piața Aerogării, Bulevardul Aviatorilor, Bucharest
The Zambaccian MuseumThe Zambaccian Museum is the house of an Armenian-Romanian merchant, Krikor Zamb5 minutes walk4.9
The National Geology MuseumThe National Geology Museum occupies a building of 1906 on Kiseleff avenue, dire7 minutes walk4.3
The National Museum of Maps and Old BooksA museum specialising in historical maps and old books, in an early twentieth-ce8 minutes walk4.8
Museum of the Romanian PeasantEuropean Museum of the Year 1996 and the Bucharest museum its own people love mo8 minutes walk4.5
Grigore Antipa Natural History MuseumBucharest's best-loved museum for children and its most modern in display: the G9 minutes walk4.9A single axis running north from Piața Victoriei: it begins with Bulevardul Aviatorilor and its trees and villas, with this monument halfway along, then reaches the **Arch of Triumph** — modelled on the Paris arch but commemorating Romania's entry into the First World War, and climbable on a limited number of days — then enters **Herăstrău Park** and the **Village Museum**. The whole distance is about three kilometres and walks in an hour, or you can take the metro from Victoriei to Aviatorilor. It is the best walk in northern Bucharest and the least crowded.