A German prince made king
Carol, a Hohenzollern, was summoned in 1866 to rule the country.
Mark Ahsmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chainwit. — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Stefan Jurca from Munich, Germany — CC BY-SA 2.0
A bronze equestrian statue of Carol I, Romania's first king, in Revolution Square before the Central University Library. The statue you see today is not the original but a replacement erected in 2010. The original was by the Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović and was unveiled in 1939, then demolished by the communist authorities in 1948 and its bronze melted down. The episode is typical of what happened in Romania after the war: the monarchy was abolished, King Michael forced to abdicate, and the symbols of the former order physically erased. Carol I was a German prince of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, summoned in 1866 to rule the United Romanian Principalities. He led the country to independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, became king in 1881, and reigned forty-eight years — the longest reign in modern Romanian history. The square itself was the site of the events of December 1989. Viewing is free.
Carol, a Hohenzollern, was summoned in 1866 to rule the country.
The longest reign in modern Romanian history.
The statue returned in 2010 after six decades of absence.
Revolution Square, central Bucharest
Here Nicolae Ceaușescu gave his last speech on 21 December 1989 from the balcony of the Central Committee building. The speech was interrupted by jeering from the crowd — a moment broadcast live and seen across the country, after which the regime collapsed within days. Ceaușescu fled by helicopter from the roof of that same building and was executed on 25 December. The square today holds a memorial to the victims of the revolution.
The National Museum of Art of Romania in the former royal palace, directly on the square, holding Romanian and European art and the country's most important icon collection. The small eighteenth-century Krețulescu church stands in the corner. And the Athenaeum concert hall is minutes away — a circular music hall of 1888 worth entering even for a short tour.
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