Fig. 4
The square and monument
of I. C. Brătianu, 1917. (The
Romanian Academy Library)The public sculpture in Romania has a relatively short history; its first appearance
dates from the middle of the 19th century. That period coincides with the rise
of nationalism and the creation of the national-state. Following the Parisian
example, the placing of statues of national heroes in the public squares was a
common practice in those countries which gained their independence in the
19 th century. The public space was transformed in what Eric Hobsbawm called
“an open-air museum of national history as seen through great men”^14. The
role of these sculptures was to foster the national feeling in a century in which
each new nation was struggling to affirm its new identity. At the same time,
they were also having a visual function, that of dominating the newly created
boulevards and squares of the city which was entering the modern age.
The first Romanian public monument was the equestrian statue of Mihai
Viteazul (Michael the Brave). It was placed in front of the Academy, next to the
newly created boulevard. Made out of bronze by the French sculptor Ernest
Carrier-Belleuse, it was unveiled in 1874 and can be still seen today. Mihai
Viteazul was seen as a national hero, the first one to unite the three Romanian
principalities in the 17th century. The monument, built only a few years before
the unification, expressed the will of unity mentioned during the inaugural
discourse.
Besides this monument, the east-west axis is an interesting instance of a
coherent urban project which included different squares with monuments
that mostly represent personalities of the Liberal Party after whom these
places were named (Pache Protopopescu, C.A. Rosetti, Ion C. Brătianu, Mihail
Kogălniceanu). The Liberals dominated the political scene during the end of
the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and played an important part
in the country’s modernisation, due to their more progressive views. Maybe
that is the reason why their statues were placed along the first boulevard to
have been built. At the same time, the boulevards, monuments and squares
of the north-south axis bear the names of the personalities who belonged to
Conservative Party (Lascăr Catargiu, Alexandru Lahovari, Take Ionescu).
Bucharest between 1918 and 1948By the end of WW I most of the boulevards had already been traced and the
major urban structure of the city already created. During this period, the
urbanistic line of thought reached a remarkable level, critically synchronized
with the international theories through the thinking of such personalities as
Cincinat Sfinţescu^15 , Duiliu Marcu, George Matei Cantacuzino, Alexandru
Zamphiropol, etc.
The period corresponds to the maturation of the urbanism, witnessing a
shift from the punctual intervention to a global view. Master plans were
created, proposing an ensemble vision for the urban development, and many
architectural and urbanistic competitions were organized. All these isolated
Monica Sebestyen