Revolution Square () is a square in central

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, on

Calea Victoriei Calea Victoriei (''Victory Avenue'') is a major avenue in central Bucharest. Situated in Sector 1, and having a length of , it leads from (which runs parallel to the Dâmbovița River) to the north and then northwest up to Piața Victoriei, w ...

. Known as Palace Square (Romanian: ''Piața Palatului'') until 1989, it was renamed after the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

of December 1989. The former Royal Palace (now the National Museum of Art of Romania), the Athenaeum, the Athénée Palace Hotel, the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

Library and the Memorial of Rebirth are located here. The square also houses the building of the former Central Committee of the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

(from where

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

and his wife fled by helicopter on 22 December 1989). In 1990, the building became the seat of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and since 2006 it houses the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform. Prior to 1948, an

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a ...

of King Carol I of Romania stood in the square. Created in 1930 by the

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

n sculptor Ivan Meštrović, the statue was destroyed in 1948 by the Communists, who never paid damages to the sculptor. In 2005, the Romanian

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

decided to recreate the destroyed statue from a model that was kept by Meštrović's family. In 2007, the Bucharest City Hall assigned the project to the sculptor Florin Codre. The statue's design, inspired by Meštrović's model, has been accused of plagiarism. The statue was unveiled in December 2010. In August 1968 and December 1989, the square was the site of two mass meetings which represented the apogee and the nadir of Ceaușescu's regime.''Regimul Ceaușescu - de la mitingul din 1968 la cel din 1989''
, "Ceaușescu Regime: From the 1968 to the 1989 Mass Meeting", in Jurnalul Național, December 21, 2005

Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 was a public address by Nicolae Ceaușescu, General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party and President of the State Council of Romania, strongly condemning the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovaki ...

marked the highest point in Ceaușescu's popularity, when he openly condemned the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and started pursuing a policy of independence from

Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin (fortification), Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Mosco ...

. Ceaușescu's speech of 21 December 1989 was meant to emulate the 1968 assembly and presented by the official media as a "spontaneous movement of support for Ceaușescu", erupting into the popular revolt which led to the end of the

regime In politics, a regime (also spelled régime) is a system of government that determines access to public office, and the extent of power held by officials. The two broad categories of regimes are democratic and autocratic. A key similarity acros ...

Image gallery

File:Central University Library of Bucharest.jpg, University of Bucharest Library File:Muzeul de Arta curte.jpg, National Museum of Art File:Piata Revolutiei, Statuia lui Carol.jpg, Statue of King Carol I File:2019 Revolution Square, Bucharest (47555248382).jpg, File:Bucharest (108691281).jpeg,

References

{{coord, 44.44058, 26.09646, display=title, type:landmark_region:RO Romanian revolution Squares in Bucharest Calea Victoriei