Stephen the Great Monument

Stephen the Great Monument

Monumentul lui Ştefan cel Mare
Location	Central Chişinău
Designer	Alexandru Plămădeală
Material	bronze, stone
Beginning date	1924
Completion date	1927
Opening date	29 April 1928
Dedicated to	Stephen III of Moldavia

The Stephen the Great Monument (Romanian: Monumentul lui Ştefan cel Mare) is a prominent monument in Chişinău, Moldova.

The monument to Stephen the Great was designed by architect Alexandru Plămădeală in 1923. It was erected near the main entrance of the Stephen the Great Park in Central Chişinău. The monument was completed in 1927 and opened on 29 April 1928 (to replace the monument to Alexander II of Russia, destroyed by the Romanian authorities in 1918), marking the 470th birthday of Stephen the Great. The total cost of the monument was 4.000.000 lei.

A few days before 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the monument was relocated to Vaslui, and its pedestal was blown up by the Soviet troops. On August 25, 1942, the monument was returned to Chişinău and taken back to Romania in 1944. In 1945, the Soviet authorities ordered the restoration of the monument to Chişinău.

On 31 August 1989 the monument to Stephen the Great was returned to its original location, chosen by Alexandru Plămădeală in the 1920s. The initial inscriptions were restored. Flower-laying ceremonies are regularly performed at the pedestal of this monument on each national holiday and on days of official top and high level visits.

External links

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• The Monument to Stephen the Great
• The Monuments of Kishinev