The Memorial to the Heroes of the Nation (Memorialul Eroilor Neamului) is a monument on Filaret Hill in the Carol I Park in Bucharest. During the Communist regime, the monument was known as the “Monument of the Heroes for the Freedom of the People and of the Motherland, for Socialism”.
The monument stands on the site of the former Palace of Arts, which later housed the National Military Museum. In 1923, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was placed in front of the building to commemorate the 225,000 people who died while defending Romania during the First World War. The monument was the work of the Romanian sculptor Emil Wilhelm Becker and was inaugurated on 17 May 1923 in the presence of the royal family, several members of the government, and a large audience.
The palace of the Military Museum was severely damaged by a fire in 1938 and the earthquake of 1940 and was demolished in 1943. Between 1959 and 1963 the current mausoleum was built in its place, based on the plans of the architects Horia Maicu and Nicolae Cucu. The monument consists of a massive round base, with five slender arches clad in red granite, which reach a height of 48 meters. The crypt of the first Communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was placed inside, but was later replaced with the statues of King Ferdinand and goddess Nike. Around the monument stands a semicircle that used to contain crypts of the remains of soldiers who had fallen under the Communist regime. On the terrace of the monument, next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier an eternal flame was placed which still burns today and symbolizes the preservation of memories.
Due to its relation to the dark Communist past, it was proposed to demolish the mausoleum and in 2004 it was even removed from the list of protected monuments and the site was appointed as the location for the new People’s Salvation Cathedral. This caused a lot of opposition and in the end it was recognized that the monument had a lot of historic and economic value and it was saved by reinstating it on the list of protected historic monuments.
