Squares, Bucharest

Nobody in Bucharest (except maybe for its author) seems to like this monument which was added to the Revolution Square in 2005. Even though its official name is “The Rebirth Memorial Eternal Glory to the Romanian Revolution and Its Heroes from December 1989″, the citizens of Bucharest refer to it by various names including “potato on a stick” (the most common one) or “the donut/nut/meatball on a spike”, “the olive on a toothpick”, “the brain skewered on a spike” etc. Apparently its modern design has not appealed at all to the citizens of Bucharest. It is so controversial that last year some of the candidates for the seat of mayor of Bucharest declared that in case they will be elected they will move or demolish the monument.

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The Revolution Square (Piata Revolutiei in Romanian) is a square in downtown Bucharest, located on Calea Victoriei. Before 1989 it was known as the Palace Square 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 Ceausescu’s regime started. This is the place where Ceausescu 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. Ceausescu 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 1930 by the sculptor Ivan Meštrovic 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. The replica will be unveiled in about a month, on December 1st 2010.

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If you come from the southern part of Bucharest, the Union Square (Piata Unirii in Romanian) is where the city center starts. Two of Bucharest subway lines intersect here and the square is the site of one of the city’s department stores, Unirea Shopping Center. Unfortunately this place was also Ceausescu's (the communist dictator) playground for experimentation, as the square was caught in his plan for “urbanization” and creation of the ugly soviet style Civic Center. To make way for it Ceausescu ordered the demolition of all the buildings located in and around Union Square. The Brâncovenesc Hospital (where yours truly was born), the Saint Friday Church, the Saint Spiridon Church, the Vacaresti Monastery and many others historical buildings and monuments as well as many private houses were virtually wiped out. Instead of these, Unirii Square is nowadays surrounded by grim, tenement blocks of the communist era, lined along the Unirii Boulevard which was built during the Communist era under the name of “The Boulevard of the Victory of Socialism” (against Bucharest), and renamed after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Along the Unirii Boulevard, Ceausescu’s architects envisioned a series of ugly fountains.

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The Romanian Athenaeum, The Romanian National Art Museum, Kretzulescu Church, The Senate and The National Library – you can visit them all by stopping in Piata Revolutiei.
The Square is crossed by Calea Victoriei.

This is where Romania’s heart was for a long time: the center of the monarchy – the Royal Palace.
This is where historical decisions were made concerning Romania’s independence.
This is where communism began when king Mihai abdicated, but also where it ended: it’s from here that the communist leader Ceausescu and his wife fled away in a helicopter to the place where they met their death sentence.

In Romanian language this is "PIATA REVOLUTIEI" meaning the Revolution Square. The building there was the headquarter of the communist party led by Nicolae Ceausescu.

It was right here on December 21st 1989 when Ceausescu was speaking to the crowds (that were as usual planned to gather there with flags and cheers) and the unthinkable happened, there was first a rumor, voices, some still cheering and clapping, some brought the flags down and started shouting anti-Ceausescu remarks.

The historic images we all watched live on TV (I remember vividly this and brings back shivers on my spine), Ceausescu with his hand in the air, saying "ALO..ALO", trying to calm down people and not understanding how this kind of mutiny is possible, where are the people in charge with "crowd control". They were probably out because as you might know there would have been no revolution in 1989 in Romania without a master plan of some kind to take Ceausescu down and replace the regime with another.

In a few minutes Ceausescu was dragged to the helicopter on the roof, live images showing the heavy helicopter (probably too many people) struggling (almost going down) to take off. That was the leaving of a dictator, from that building in "Piata Revolutiei".

Later in the evening, more people came to the square, with flags of which the communist sign in the middle was cut up a hole, going to the balcony where Ceausescu used to speak. Then it was chaos, shots fired, all live on TV. We all watched in horror but with trust for a better times. Which were to come slowly in the next 20 years.

Bullet holes are still to be seen in buildings around the square (as well as in buildings around the National Television headquarter, north of Bucharest)

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The University Square is one of the main squares in Bucharest. It is a place full of history. The University Square is the house of the former St. Sava Monastery who was demolished to built the square that we see today. Here, during the times of Constantin Brancoveanu, was functioning a school that was called Academia Domneasca. In the same place in 1918 Gheorghe Lazar put the bases of the Romanian school system/academic system.

In the middle of the square there are 4 statues that represent great figures of Romanian history: Ion Heliade Radulescu (one of the Romanian literature parents/founders), Mihai Viteazul (the first one that formed Romania by uniting Wallachia, Transilvania and Moldova), Gheorghe Lazar (the founder of the school system in the Romanian language) and Spiru Haret (teacher and a very active figure on the Romanian academic system).

The University Square is also the place where Romanians fought for the gain of their liberty in December 1989. It is a symbol of the 1989 Romanian Revolution.

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Piaţa Romană, which means Roman Square, is at the heart of one of Bucharest's most expensive areas. On its eastern side are the Howard Johnson Grand Plaza Hotel and the Academy of Economic Studies. At the western end is the Capitoline Wolf Statue.

It is a major transport hub for buses, trams and taxis. It has its own Piaţa Romană metro station, which is actually just south of the square on Blvd. Magheru.

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Piaţa Victoriei is a massive square at the northern end of Calea Victoriei. In fact, it is a veritable ocean of tarmac. Palatul Victoria, the headquarters of the Romanian government, stands on one side while the Museum of the Romanian Peasant is just north of the square.