Guys, we visited here in the middle of April 2025. The monument is quite large and is clearly visible from afar. King Carol rides a horse. Monumental, we do not deny. We recommend it! Although, of course, it's up to you to decide...

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Ephim Akulov

Level 22 Local Expert

The monument to Karol the First is a bronze monument weighing 13 tons and about thirteen meters high. It is made in the form of an equestrian statue by architect Ivan Meshtrovich. It was opened on May 10, 1939, exactly one hundred years after the birth of Carol the first, on the National Day of Romania, in the presence of King Carol the Second of Romania and the great Voivode of Alba-Julia Mihai (heir to the crown, the future King of Romania Mihai the first). Although Karol the first did not die due to wounds, the horse is depicted with its right front leg raised, which, according to heraldic rules, means the death of the rider from wounds in the war. The death of King Carol the First, who died unexpectedly on September 27, 1914, was attributed to his spiritual wounds in the context of the outbreak of the First World War: the king wanted to enter the war on the side of the Triple Alliance, while public opinion was on the side of the Entente. On the night of the thirtieth to the thirty-first of December 1947, after a few hours earlier King Mihai the first forcibly signed his abdication from the throne and Romania became the Romanian People's Republic, the Communists removed the statue from its pedestal. The horse sculpture was tied with a steel chain, the end of which was attached to an army tank, which toppled the monument after several unsuccessful attempts. After the demolition, the mutilated statue was melted down, and a monument to Lenin was cast from the bronze obtained by sculptor Boris Karadzha, which stood from 1960 to 1990 in the park in front of the Iskra House (currently the House of the Free Press). On April 25, 2008, the monument was restored and installed in its former place — on Revolution Square.

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