Mormântul Ostașului Necunoscut

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is Romania's national memorial — the place where the remains of an anonymous soldier rest, a symbol of the more than 200,000 troops who fell in the First World War for the unification of the country. A work by the sculptor Emil Wilhelm Becker, the monument was inaugurated in 1923 in the presence of the royal family, and today stands in Carol I Park, on the heights near the Mausoleum, permanently guarded by a guard of honour and an eternal flame.

The story of how the soldier was chosen is one of the most moving in Romanian history: in 1923, from several coffins brought back from the Mărășești, Mărăști and Oituz fronts, a twelve-year-old boy orphaned by the war, named Amilcar Săndulescu, stopped in front of one and said "this is my father". That coffin became the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. During the communist period the monument was moved to Mărășești and brought back across the decades, following the turmoil of history, but it returned for good to Carol Park in 2006.

Good to know

• This is a place of reflection — visit it with the respect due to a funerary and memorial monument.
• It stands in Carol I Park; head up toward the Mausoleum to find it.
• The Tineretului metro station is a few minutes' walk from the park entrance.

To understand modern Romanian history and the price of the Great Union, it is one of the most eloquent stops in the Bucharest of sights — sober, silent and deeply charged with meaning.