by renaming landmarks such as streets, public squares, and
buildings. These provide contour to landscape, socializing them
and saturating them with specific political values: they signify
space in specific ways”^3Being the capital city, Bucharest was intended to represent the whole nation
and for this reason it was at the centre of the urban planning preoccupations.
The changes of Bucharest were shaped by these historical changes, but it was
as well the synchronous preoccupation regarding the modernization which was
present in most major European cities.
The present study is divided into two parts, corresponding to the main periods
of the city’s evolution. The temporal framework of its development is given,
in fact, by the important historical events which led to the founding of the
Romanian nation and which, at the same time, accord to a great extent with
the changes that occurred in the process of conceiving the public space and the
different types of public monuments as well.
The period spanning from the union of the two principalities, Moldavia
and Wallachia, in 1859, to the end of World War I, in 1918, corresponds to
Bucharest’s coming to its modern age. During this time, the main boulevards
and squares of the city were shaped by works that were synchronous to the
ones happening in other European capitals. At the same time, this period
concurs to the construction of a certain type of monument dedicated to the
great men^4 of the nation which, in most cases, expressed the national ideology.
During this period, the basic urban structure is formed and the national unity
is achieved.
The next period of time, spanning from 1918 to1948, was an extremely
turbulent one, both nationally and internationally, dominated by many political
changes. From the city planning perspective, the projects of the previously
conceived boulevards were concluded and the main structure of the city was
already formed. This is a period of city planning maturity, during which the
systematization plans were elaborated. Especially during the reign of Carol
II, numerous ambitious projects were proposed as an expression of a desired
monumentality of which, however, most remained unaccomplished. As for
the public monuments, following the war trauma, a new type of monument
appeared, namely the one dedicated to the heroes, which was to be built all
over the country. Over this period, an even more evident connection between
power, public space and monument can be traced.
Shaping the modern Bucharest, 1859-1918At the beginning of the 19th century Bucharest was a Balkan city, lacking the
ordered structure of an antique, geometric city, not following the classical/
baroque principles of urban composition either. Combined with the lack