Câmpia Libertății (Liberty Field), Blaj

Câmpia Libertății (Liberty Field) is a historic site in the municipality of Blaj, Alba County, in the floodplain of the Târnava Mare. On 3/15 May 1848 it hosted the Great National Assembly of the Romanians of Transylvania, the most important event of the 1848 Revolution in the Romanian lands. Between 30,000 and 40,000 Romanians from all over Transylvania demanded the abolition of serfdom, the recognition of the Romanian nation as a nation in its own right and equal rights with the other nations of the empire. Blaj played a central role in this event as the Greek Catholic cultural and ecclesiastical centre of the Transylvanian Romanians; the town was known as "Mica Romă" (Little Rome). The 1848 Assembly has remained in collective memory as a landmark of Romanian national consciousness. The field holds the "Gloria" monument by sculptor Ion Vlasiu (inaugurated in 1977), 18 m high, inscribed "Vrem să ne unim cu țara!" (We want to unite with the country!), and the Alley of the Revolution, with 26 bronze busts of the scholars and revolutionaries of 1848. The ensemble is a historical monument (LMI code AB-III-a-B-00408). Every year in mid-May the Liberty Festival (Sărbătoarea Libertății) is held here, commemorating the assembly of 15 May 1848. Did you know that on 2 June 2019, on Liberty Field, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass at which he beatified seven Greek Catholic bishops who died under the communist regime, among them Ioan Suciu, who in 1948 had been forbidden to speak on this same field?