Union Square, Iași

Piața Unirii lies in the centre of Iași, where three historic streets meet: Bulevardul Ștefan cel Mare (the former Ulița Mare), Strada Alexandru Lăpușneanu (the former Ulița Sârbească) and Strada Cuza Vodă (the former Golia street). The site was previously known as Piața Veseliei. The idea of a square commemorating the unionist demonstrations came from a reader of the newspaper "Ecoul Moldovei", and the city hall began creating it in 1896 by expropriating and demolishing the buildings between the former inn of Petrea Bacalu and the St Spiridon Hospital. At the centre of the square stands the bronze statue of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, made by the Italian sculptor Raffaello Romanelli and unveiled on 27 May 1912 in the presence of King Carol I, with speeches by the historians A. D. Xenopol and Nicolae Iorga. The statue is 3.5 m tall and 6.5 m including the pedestal; the base of the pedestal depicts Mihail Kogălniceanu, Costache Negri, Nicolae Kretzulescu and General Ioan Emanuel Florescu, while the plaques on its sides recall the double election of 1859, the secularisation of monastic estates, the coup of 2 May 1864 and the abdication of 1866. The monument was funded by public subscription and is a listed historic monument (LMI code IS-III-m-B-04320). On the west side of the square stands the Grand Hotel Traian (Piața Unirii no. 1), built in 1882 on land belonging to former mayor Scarlat Pastia, who had planned a national theatre here. The neoclassical building has a metal frame with cast-iron columns, and its design and construction are attributed by several sources to the firm of the engineer Gustave Eiffel. Ruined by the building costs, Pastia handed it over to the Creditul Urban bank, which turned it into a hotel. It is a listed historic monument (LMI code IS-II-m-B-04084). The square is also lined by the Hotel Unirea and the Braunstein Palace. Every year on 24 January the Union of the Romanian Principalities is celebrated in Piața Unirii, and during the winter holidays the city's Christmas tree is set up here. The statue and its pedestal were consolidated in 2006-2007, when the square was rebuilt.