Independence Statue and Boulevard

The Statue is 17 metres high and was designed by the sculptors Gabriela Manole-Adoc and Gheorghe Adoc on the centenary of Romania’s proclamation of independence in 1877. The monument was inaugurated in the presence of the Ceaușescu couple on September 15th, 1980. On the pedestal there was a long quotation of the dictator, now replaced with one belonging to poet Mihai Eminescu. Six bas-reliefs describe crucial moments of the Independence War against Ottomans, from the call to arms to the great victory of the Romanian flags. The communist urban intervention meant the destruction of an important historical urban texture in order to create a large socialist boulevard, dominated by buildings whose façades seem to display the word ”INDEPENDENȚA”, through their balconies’ arrangement. (PHOTO : Mihai BULAI)