The Equestrian Statue of Michael the Brave (Statuia Ecvestră a lui Mihai Viteazul) is a bronze monument near Exhibition Park in the Copou district of Iași. It commemorates Michael the Brave, the Wallachian ruler who briefly brought Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia under his authority in 1600 and entered Iași as ruler of Moldavia on June 1 of that year.
The idea for the monument was proposed in 1993 by war veteran Iosif Petrescu, and in 1997 the Iași branch of the War Veterans Association helped establish the “Iași 400 – Mihai Viteazul” committee to bring the project forward. Sculptor Ioan Busdugan’s design was selected in 1999, but he died in March 2000 before the work was completed. His assistant, sculptor Pavel Mercea, continued the project, and the monument was unveiled on January 23, 2002, in the presence of President Ion Iliescu.
The approximately four-meter-high statue weighs around seven tons and depicts Michael the Brave on horseback in a commanding upright pose. Its equestrian form emphasizes his military role and the 1600 union for which he became an enduring symbol in Romanian historical memory.
