Union Monument, Iași Explained

Union Monument (Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: Monumentul Unirii), a monument of white marble in the Romanian city of Iaşi, was designed by Princess Olga Sturdza and unveiled in 1927 at the base of Carol Boulevard. It consists of a central piece (the Motherland) and four smaller ones representing the historic provinces of Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina (incorporated into Romania at the end of World War I) and the Romanian diaspora. Demolished in 1947 as the Romanian Communist Party was tightening its grip on the country, it was rebuilt in 1999, this time being placed in Piaţa Naţiunii, in front of the Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

History

On 1 August 1924, Princess Olga Sturdza sent a letter to the Iaşi mayor's office, expressing her intention to donate to the city a marble monument symbolizing the Great Union of 1918: