Victory Square ( ro, Piața Victoriei, ) is one of the major public squares in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

, an intersection where

Calea Victoriei CALEA may refer to: *Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, an act by the US Congress to facilitate wiretapping of U.S. domestic telephone and Internet traffic *Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, a private accredit ...

Lascăr Catargiu Lascăr Catargiu ( or Lascăr Catargi; 1 November 1823 – ) was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, ...

Boulevard, Iancu de Hunedoara Boulevard, Kiseleff Boulevard,

Ion Mihalache Ion Mihalache (; March 3, 1882 – February 5, 1963) was a Romanian agrarian politician, the founder and leader of the Peasants' Party (PȚ) and a main figure of its successor, the National Peasants' Party (PNȚ). Early life A schoolteacher bor ...

Boulevard, and

Nicolae Titulescu Nicolae Titulescu (; 4 March 1882 – 17 March 1941) was a Romanian diplomat, at various times government minister, finance and foreign minister, and for two terms president of the General Assembly of the League of Nations (1930–32). Early ye ...

Boulevard cross.

History

Interwar photo of the Victory Square in Bucharest (02)

The Victory Square received its name in 1878, although it appeared in maps fifty years earlier, when the Kiseleff Road was cut. Initially, the square had an almost circular shape, edged by public buildings, the

Antipa Museum The Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History ( ro, Muzeul Național de Istorie Naturală „Grigore Antipa”) is a natural history museum, located in Bucharest, Romania. It was originally established as the National Museum of Natural H ...

(the western side), the Sturdza Palace (the eastern side), and the Building of the Public Officials Association (the southern side), the last two no longer existing. During the interwar period, the

Victoria Palace The Victoria Palace () is a government building on the large Victory Square () in Bucharest, housing the Prime Minister of Romania and his cabinet. The Victory Palace was designed in 1937 to house the Foreign Ministry, and nearly complete in 19 ...

is added in the Square, right behind the Sturdza Palace. On 24 and 25 August 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, after Romania started to fight together with the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

in the wake of the coup d'état of 23 August, some buildings with important functions were bombarded by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, and destroyed partially or totally. Two main bombardment points were the Victory Square and the Revolution Square (known at that time as the ''Royal Palace Square''), because the Victoria Palace was the Foreign Ministry at that time, a very important institution. Unfortunately, the Sturdza Palace and the Building of the Public Officials Association were heavily damaged by the bombardments. After the war, the square changed significantly. It more than doubled its area: the esplanade of the Victoria Palace was created where the Sturza Palace stood, and a little park was created where the Society of Civil Servants Building was. The south side of the square was reoccupied in the late 1980s, during the

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( , ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and dictator. He was the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was ...

regime with massive housing blocks, similar with the ones from the new

Civic Centre A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

. Today, the square is known for its proximity to major office towers and government buildings. The main government building dates back as far as 1937, when construction work for it started, but it was only completed in 1950. In 1987, the neighboring apartment buildings and Victoria Underpass were built; the underpass was completed sometime in 1987–1989 and the apartment buildings in 1992–1994.

Important public buildings

Victoria Palace

Bucharest Victoria Palace-2.jpg, The facade of the

ROMANIA, Bucuresti, 1. Dec. 2015, Palatul Guvernului (interior 6).JPG, Interior of the palace Reliefs on the main facade of the Victoria palace in Bucharest (north).jpg, Relief on the main facade of the palace (northern part) by Mac Constantinescu Reliefs on the main facade of the Victoria palace in Bucharest (south).jpg, Relief on the main facade of the palace (southern part) by Mac Constantinescu. Under the relief, there was a decorative fountain with three mascarons Interwar or WW2 photo of the Victoria Palace (left) and the Sturdza Palace (right) in Victory Square, Bucharest, Romania, coexisting.jpg, Photo made before the 1944 bombardments, with the Victoria Palace (left) and the Sturdza Palace (right). This picture shows that the two buildings coexisted, and that today, the Victoria Palace isn't in the place of the Sturdza Palace as some sources might say Despite now being the seat of the Romanian Government, the Victoria Palace was originally designed to house the Foreign Ministry. It was built between 1937 and 1947, in the Stripped Classicist style, after the plans by

Duiliu Marcu Duiliu Marcu (25 March 1885 – 9 March 1966) was a Romanian architect, one of the most well known and prolific of the interwar period. With a career spanning from 1912 to 1966, he is said to have designed 150 public and private projects across Rom ...

. Stylistically, it is inspired by the architecture promoted by far right regimes from Italy and Germany, very similar with the Mussolini-era Italian

Rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...

. It was planned to represent the power of

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930 until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. The eldest son of Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I in 1914. He was the first of th ...

and his dictatorial regime (1938-1940), destined to be the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( ro, Ministerul Regal al Afacerilor Străine). Initially, the façade were plated with

Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...

. The main one, towards square, included a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

of 19 arches and two lateral panels with reliefs. These were carved by Mac Constantinescu in Carrara marble. Each panel was 15 m high and was made of three layers of reliefs with allegorical characters and Latin texts: agriculture and commerce, culture, geography and history, inventiveness and ingenuity, abundance. Under each panel, there was a decorative fountain, ornamented with three mascarons and some coats of arms of the historic provinces of Romania. Besides the Victoria Palace, Mac Constantinescu also made a metal

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

showing the history of Romanians for the Romanian pavilion of the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

. He also produced costumes and stage designs for opera and ballet. The palace (which was in construction in 1944, almost finished) was heavily damaged by the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

bombardments from 4 April 1944. The resistance structure and the reliefs on the façade were very affected. Until 1952, the façades and the interiors were consolidated, under the supervision of the architect of the building, Duiliu Marcu. However, the façade is plated with

travertine Travertine ( ) is a form of terrestrial limestone deposited around mineral springs, especially hot springs. It often has a fibrous or concentric appearance and exists in white, tan, cream-colored, and even rusty varieties. It is formed by a pro ...

, and the reliefs and fountains no longer appear.

Grigore Antipa Museum of Natural History

1, Șoseaua Pavel D. Kiseleff, Bucharest (Romania) 1.jpg, Present-day photo of the facade Belle Époque photo of the Antipa Museum in Victory Square of Bucharest, Romania.jpg, Belle Époque photo of the museum. Notice how there was a

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

in the

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

and how its corners were decorated Victory Square of Bucharest in 1917, with the Antipa Museum in the background.jpg, Victory Square in 1917, under the occupation of the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

, with the Antipa Museum in the background File:Antipa Museum in Victory Square of Bucharest, Romania, damaged by the 1977 Earthquake.jpg, Columns on the facade, damaged by the 1977 Vrancea earthquake The museum was founded in 1834 as the antiques, art, and natural curiosities cabinet of the

Saint Sava Academy Saint Sava College was one of the earliest academic institutions in Wallachia, Romania. It was the predecessor to both Saint Sava National College and the University of Bucharest. History It was the continuator of the Princely Academy from Buchare ...

. It became a natural history museum at the beginning of the 20th century. The Neoclassical building was erected between 1903 and 1906, after the plans of architect

Grigore Cerkez Grigore, the equivalent of Gregory, is a Romanian-language first name. It may refer to: *Grigore Alexandrescu (1810–1885), Romanian poet and translator *Grigore Antipa (1866–1944), Romanian Darwinist biologist, ichthyologist, ecologist, oceano ...

and engineer Mihai Rosco. During the late 1990s and the 2000s, the museum was renovated, consolidated and redesigned.

Office buildings

Here is a list of some of the tallest office buildings: *

Bucharest Tower Center Tower Center International is a class A office building in Bucharest. It has 26 floors, with a total of floor space. It is located near Victory Square, or 1 Mai zone. At a height of ,

, the second tallest building in Bucharest and Romania. * BRD Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Bucharest.

Future plans

There are plans to replace the parking lot opposite of

with a statue of

Maxim Pandelescu Maxim or Maksim may refer to: Entertainment * ''Maxim'' (magazine), an international men's magazine ** ''Maxim'' (Australia), the Australian edition ** ''Maxim'' (India), the Indian edition *Maxim Radio, ''Maxim'' magazine's radio channel on Sir ...

, a general in the

Romanian Army The Romanian Land Forces ( ro, Forțele Terestre Române) is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the Lan ...

during

, as well as an anti-communist guerrilla leader.

Notes

References

* {{Quarters Bucharest Squares in Bucharest