Memorial of Rebirth

The Memorial of Rebirth was inaugurated in August 2005 in Revolution Square where Nicolae Ceausescu was publicly overthrown in December 1989 and it is dedicated to all the victims of the Romanian Revolution, around 1,500 lives, against the Communism and their leaders.

Before 1949, at that same square, there was a sculpture of Charles I of Romania created by Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovic in 1930 and it was then destroyed by the Communists. In the year 2005 the statue was recreated again from a model still kept by Mestrovic’s family.

The new memorial was designed by Alexandru Ghildus, featuring a marble pillar metres high surrounded by a 600 m2 plaza made out of marble and granite. A metal crown is placed upon the pillar.

The costs for the whole project were around 1.5 million Euros and there is still a big discussion about the aesthetics of the design. In fact, the designer Ghildus is not an accepted sculptor, rather he is much more known as an expert designer for chairs, lamps and tables.