Planning Capital Cities

lost their lives and for finding a way to give meaning to their death and comfort

the survivors.

This was a great change of attitude regarding the monuments, according to

which not only rulers, saints or great men had the right to be depicted in the

public space, but also the anonymous or ordinary men who became heroes.^26

War monuments from the capital city were dedicated to different professional

categories (The Monument to the Heroes of the Teacher Corps, The CFR

Heroes Monument, The Monument of the Sanitary Heroes, etc.) or to different

combatant categories (The Monument to the Infantry, The Monument to the

Heroes of the Air, etc.). Usually these monuments were located in existing

public spaces, without extensive urban projects meant to integrate them.

Conclusions

During the period in question, Bucharest was gradually transformed, from the

Ottoman medieval city to the modern capital. These interventions that shaped

the city were linked to the broader context of the nation’s building process.

Urban image and national representation: Bucharest in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century

Fig. 14
The Monument to the Heroes of the Air.
(Furtună, Bogdan: Monografia monumentului “Eroilor aerului”,
Bucureşti, 1939)

Fig. 15

Monument to the Infantery.

(Istoricul înfăptuirii Monumentului infanteriei, 1938, p. 5)