Charles de Gaulle Square is a square in northern Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. It lies at the intersection of Aviatorilor, Constantin Prezan and Primăverii Boulevards, and Calea Dorobanţilor.

In the centre of the square stands Paul Neagu

Paul Neagu

Paul Neagu was an internationally important British-Romanian artist, working in diverse media such as drawing, sculpture, performance art and watercolor...

's Crucea Mileniului (Millennium Cross), built in the 1990s. In September 2006, on the occasion of the Francophonie Summit held in Bucharest, a statue of Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

 was unveiled. Sculpted by Mircea Spătaru, it is 4.6 m high and was financed by the government.

Neighbourhood

Herăstrău Park

Herastrau Park

Herăstrău Park is a large park on the northern side of Bucharest, Romania, around Lake Herăstrău.The park has an area of about 1.1 km², of which 0.7 km² is the lake. Initially, the area was full of marshes, but these were drained between 1930 and 1935, and the park was opened in 1936...

 is located to the northwest of the square, Arcul de Triumf

Arcul de Triumf

Arcul de Triumf is a triumphal arch located in the northern part of Bucharest, on the Kiseleff Road.The first, wooden, triumphal arch was built hurriedly, after Romania gained its independence , so that the victorious troops could march under it...

 is located in its own square a few hundred metres to the west, on Constantin Prezan Boulevard, while Piaţa Victoriei, where the Romanian Government headquarters

Victoria Palace

Victoria Palace is a palace in Victory Square, Bucharest, built in 1937, which is the headquarters of the Prime Minister of Romania and his cabinet.-See also:*Government of Romania...

 is situated, is located south, at the end of Aviatorilor Boulevard.

The state-owned Romanian Television

Romanian television

Romanian television may refer to:* Communications media in Romania* Televiziunea Română, TVR, the national television network* List of Romanian language television channels...

 is located about 100 metres to the southeast, on Calea Dorobanţilor. The Primăverii neighbourhood, which used to include the houses of the Communist nomenklatura

Nomenklatura

The nomenklatura were a category of people within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the...

, is located to the northeast.

Charles de Gaulle Plaza

Charles de Gaulle Plaza

Charles de Gaulle Plaza is a "class A" office building in the Charles de Gaulle Square, Bucharest, Romania. It is constructed entirely out of steel and glass....

, an office building inaugurated in 2004, is located in the southeastern part of the Square and the Aviatorilor metro station

Aviatorilor metro station

Aviatorilor is a metro station in Bucharest. It is located at the end of Aviatorilor Boulevard, under Charles de Gaulle Square. It provides easy access to Herăstrău Park and the headquarters of the national television network, TVR....

 is located right underneath the Square, oriented from north to south.

Name

The square was originally Piaţa Jianu, from Iancu Jianu

Iancu Jianu

Iancu Jianu was a Wallachian Romanian hajduk.-Biography:Born in Caracal, Oltenia, Wallachia, to the Jianu boyar family, as the youngest of four brothers...

, a haiduc

Hajduk

Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans, Central- and Eastern Europe....

 (brigand) and folk hero who fought together with Tudor Vladimirescu

Tudor Vladimirescu

Tudor Vladimirescu was a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri or — occasionally — as Domnul Tudor .-Background:Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County in a family of landed peasants...

 in the 1821 Wallachian Revolution. In the early 1940s it was renamed Piaţa Adolf Hitler, but its original name was restored shortly after 23 August 1944, when Romania joined the Allies

Allies of World War II

The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...

 and turned against the Axis Powers

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

.

However, following the Soviet occupation of Romania

Soviet occupation of Romania

The Soviet occupation of Romania refers to the period from 1944 to August 1958, during which the Soviet Union maintained a significant military presence in Romania...

, its name was changed in 1948 to Piaţa Stalin, lasting until the early 1960s, when Romania began to assert a more independent foreign policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 and it was renamed Piaţa Aviatorilor, Aviator

Aviator

An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

s' Square.

Its final name change happened in the late 1990s, the square being renamed after Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle

Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....

, the leader of the Free French Forces

Free French Forces

The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...

 and first president of the French Fifth Republic

French Fifth Republic

The Fifth Republic is the fifth and current republican constitution of France, introduced on 4 October 1958. The Fifth Republic emerged from the collapse of the French Fourth Republic, replacing the prior parliamentary government with a semi-presidential system...

.

External links

• Charles de Gaulle Square, aerial view from the north

Arhitextdesign - Cladire birouri Piata Charles de Gaulle Bucuresti, and an image of it