Monument to the Heroes of the Air

The Aviators' Monument is located in the Aviators' Square, on Aviators’ Boulevard, Bucharest, Romania. It was built between 1930 and 1935 by the architect and sculptress Lidia Kotzebuie and by Iosif Fekete. The structure, 20 m high, is made up of bronze sculptures resting on an obelisk -shaped stone pedestal, which in turn stands atop four trapezoidal prisms linked to each other by arcs. Beneath this entire complex is a circular stone base. Attached to the top of the obelisk, which reaches 15 meters, is a 5-meter and 5-tones statue representing a flying man, with his wings outstretched. The folds of a shawl fall from his waist onto the obelisk. Three aviators, each in a different stage of flight attempt, are depicted around the base of the obelisk. On the pedestal are the aviators' insignia, helmets and equipments, as well as engraved plaques with the names of Romanian airmen who had crashed by the time the monument was built. These men died pursuing various goals: skill development, performance, adventure and fighting in First World War. In July 1927, the committee formed for the construction on the monument asked Kotzebuie to execute a model with the size of one quarter from the overall dimensions of the planned monument. In 1930, with the help of the Air Force Ministry, material from Argeş River was brought to the Malaxa Factory, where the statue was to be produced. There, in May 1930, in the architect’s presence, the statue was cast in bronze, after a plaster model. On July 21st, 1935, on the monument it was inscribed “To the Airmen Heroes”; the original lettering has been preserved. In 1981, a miniature copy of the monument accompanied the cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu into outer space. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, the ornamental design above the dedication, representing the cross of the Order of Aeronautical Virtue (a cross with its side bar shaped like wings, a pair of crossed swords and the Coat of arms of Romania) was restored.