Revolution Square (Romanian:Piața Revoluției) is a square in centralBucharest, onCalea Victoriei. Known asPalace Square (Romanian:Piața Palatului) until 1989, it was renamed after theRomanian Revolution ofDecember 1989.The formerRoyal Palace (now theNational Museum of Art of Romania), theAthenaeum, theAthénée Palace Hotel, theUniversity of Bucharest Library and theMemorial of Rebirth are located here. The square also housesthe building of the formerCentral Committee of theRomanian Communist Party (from whereNicolae Ceaușescu and his wife fled by helicopter on 22 December 1989). In 1990, the building became the seat of theSenate and since 2006 it houses theMinistry of Interior and Administrative Reform.[1]
Prior to 1948, anequestrian statue of KingCarol I of Romania stood in the square. Created in 1930 by theCroatian sculptorIvan Meštrović, the statue was destroyed in 1948 by the Communists, who never paid damages to the sculptor. In 2005, the RomanianMinister of Culture 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.[2] The statue was unveiled in December 2010.[3]
In August 1968 and December 1989, the square was the site of two mass meetings which represented the apogee and the nadir ofCeaușescu's regime.[4]Ceaușescu's speech of 21 August 1968 marked the highest point in Ceaușescu's popularity, when he openly condemned theSoviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and started pursuing a policy of independence fromKremlin.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 thepopular revolt which led to the end of theregime.
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44°26′26″N26°05′47″E / 44.44058°N 26.09646°E /44.44058; 26.09646