Monument to Carol I (Bucharest)

In 1936, a competition was held in Bucharest for the creation of equestrian monuments to Kings Karol I and Ferdinand I. In both categories, the competition was won by Oscar Gan , but in the end the order for both sculptures was transferred to the Croatian sculptor and architect Ivan Mestrovich ^[3] . Konstantin Barasky also participated in the competition, his competitive project is currently on display at the Museum of Local History in Ploiesti .

The equestrian statue (monument), made by Ivan Mestrovic, was unveiled on May 10, 1939, exactly one hundred years after the birth of Carol I, on the National Day of Romania , in the presence of the King of Romania Carol II and the great governor of Alba-Julia Mihai (heir to the crown, future King of Romania Mihai I ) ^[4] . Although Carol I did not die because of the wounds received in the war, the horse is depicted with a raised right front leg, which, according to heraldic rules, means the rider’s death from wounds in the war. The death of King Carol I, who unexpectedly died on September 27 ( October 10 ) 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 ^{[5 ]} .

After the grand opening of the statue, placed between the Royal Palace and the Book Palace, the celebration continued according to the old tradition: at 11 o’clock a religious ceremony took place, then Prime Minister Armand Kalinescu delivered a speech and King Carol II. Later, a parade followed: the troops marching in Bucharest, which existed during the reign of Carol I, marched in a ceremonial march, officials, women and men dressed in the form of the recently created National Revival Front ^[6] .

On the night of December 30–31, 1947, after several hours earlier, King Mihai I had forcibly signed his renunciation of the throne and Romania became the Romanian People’s Republic , the Communists removed the statue from the pedestal ^[4] .

Sculptor Dumitru Demu , who witnessed the demolition of the statue, told of what he saw:

“An army of workers worked on the demolition of the equestrian statue of Karol I, the masterpiece of the famous Croatian sculptor Ivan Mestrovich. The horse sculpture was tied with a thick steel chain attached to an army tank, which was desperately pulling the monument down. The monument managed to be overthrown only after several attempts. The horse's legs bent and the statue collapsed onto the sidewalk. After that, the tank dragged the sculpture, the sounds of the grinding of metal on asphalt and rubble were heard ” ^[7] .

After the demolition, the mutilated statue was delivered to the courtyard of the Pyrotechnic Army (Grozavesti garages) ^[8] . Later, the statue was melted, and from the bronze received by the sculptor Boris Karadzhey a monument was cast to Lenin ^[4] , which stood from September 21, 1960 to March 3, 1990 in the park in front of the Iskra House (later renamed the Free Press House) ^[9] .

According to unconfirmed information, not the whole statue was molten, but only the sculpture of Karol I, the sculpture of the horse was preserved and “reworked” as part of the monument to Generalissimo Alexander Suvorov , which was built in 1957 by the sculptor Marius Butunoy , and installed in 1959 in the village Dragosloveni ^{[10] [11] [12]} .

Ivan Meshtrovich , who moved to the United States in 1947, a few years after the demolition of the monument to Karol I, sued the Romanian authorities, causing damage to his works of art ^[4] . At the request of the sculptor and UNESCO , a trial was launched, as a result of which several million dollars were paid to the sculptor ^[10] .

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