The Monument of the Anti-Communist Struggle (Monumentul Luptei Anticomuniste), also called the “Wings Monument” (Monumentul Aripi) is a monument on Free Press Square (Piața Presei Libere) in front of the House of the Free Press in the north of Bucharest.
The monument stands at the exact place where a statue of Vladimir Lenin, by the sculptor Boris Caragea, was installed on 21 April 1960. The statue was removed in 1990, following the 1989 Revolution, and replaced by the current Monument of the Anti-Communist Struggle in December 2015.
The monument was initiated by the Association of Former Political Detainees from Romania in 1994. The sculpture is the design of the artist Mihai Buluca, who won the competition in 2004. The monument was officially inaugurated on 30 May 2016 in the presence of President Klaus Iohannis.
The statue consists of three large wings made of stainless steel and plated with platinated bronze and represents freedom and unrestrained soaring towards the sky. The red marble slabs covering the massive plinth were reused from the former statue of Lenin. A memorial plaque is located at the base of the monument.
The monument weighs 102 tons and measures a height of approximately 24 meters, which placed on its 6 meters high plinth reaches 30 meters in total, which is 3 meters higher than the 27 meter high Triumphal Arch. The cost of the monument reached over 3.5 million euros.
