The Ion C. Brătianu Monument (Monumentul lui Ion C. Brătianu) is a large monument in the center of the roundabout on University Square in central Bucharest.
The monument was created by the French sculptor Ernest Henri Dubois, after the design of the architect Petre Antonescu. It was unveiled on 18 May 1903, 12 years after the death of Ion Constantin Brătianu, who was one of the most important political figures of the 19th century in Romania.
The monument has a height of 15 meters and consists of a bronze statue of Ion C. Brătianu on top of a large stone pedestal. Brătianu is depicted in the posture of an orator with his right hand stretched out pointing to the north next to a woman holding the Romanian flag and a soldier in uniform. The pedestal is decorated with several smaller bronze sculptures, among which a woman who breaks the chain of slavery, a reference to Romania’s independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Reliefs are placed on two sides of the monument, one depicting Ion Brătianu speaking to the nation in 1848, and the other depicting Carol I being greeted by Brătianu and other people upon arriving in Romania. On the plinth the following text is inscribed (translated from Romanian): “Through our mind, through our heart, and our arms. 1851”.
The original monument didn’t survive so a replica was created by the sculptor Ionel Stoicescu and installed on the same location as the original in 2019.
