The Alley of Classics is a sculptural complex located in the Stephen the Great Park in Downtown Chişinău

Downtown Chişinău

Central or Downtown Chişinău is the central business district of Chişinău, Moldova.- Overview :In central Chişinău are located the major governmental and business institutions of Moldova:*The Parliament*Government building*Presidential palace...

, Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

.

Overview

The alley is decorated on both sides with red granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 busts

Bust (sculpture)

A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...

 of classic Romanian literary

Literature of Romania

Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....

 figures and political leaders from Moldova

Moldova

Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...

. The alley is located between the Ştefan cel Mare boulevard and the bronze

Bronze

Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 bust of Alexander Pushkin, set on a granite column and made by Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n sculptor Alexander Opekushin

Alexander Opekushin

Alexander Mikhailovich Opekushin was s Russian sculptor. Among his works are part of the sculptures of the Millennium of Russia monument in Velikiy Novgorod , the monument to Alexander Pushkin in Moscow , the monument to Mikhail Lermontov in Pyatigorsk , the monument to Alexander II in Moscow...

. The alley was built and received its name in 1958 and became one of the most important tourist attractions in Chişinău

Chisinau

Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...

. At first there were only twelve sculptures but after the fall of the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, the local authorities added busts of Romanian and Moldovan writers and poets that were banned during the Soviet regime.

The idea of a sculptural complex was launched by the interwar sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală

Alexandru Plamadeala

Alexandru Plamădeală was a Moldovan sculptor. He was the artist responsible for the creation of the Stephen the Great Monument in Chişinău .He graduated from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture....

, who dream to create an open-air museum. Just during the Khrushchev Thaw

Khrushchev Thaw

The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...

, the Alley of Classics was unveliled on April 29, 1958 in the Stephen the Great Park (former "A.S. Puşkin" Park). The sculptural complex from Cişmigiu Gardens

Cismigiu Gardens

The Cişmigiu Gardens are a public park near the center of Bucharest, Romania, spanning areas on all sides of an artificial lake. The gardens' creation was an important moment in the history of Bucharest. They form the oldest and, at 17 hectares, the largest park in city's central area...

 in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 served as a model.

Busts

The Alley of Classics contains 28 busts (including that of Alexander Pushkin, lying at the head of the alley) in alphabetical order.

Nr	Bust	Unveiled	Sculptor	Image
1	Vasile Alecsandri Vasile Alecsandri Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....	1957	Lazăr Dubinovschi
2	Tudor Arghezi Tudor Arghezi Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...	1995	Dimitrie Verdeanu
3	Gheorghe Asachi Gheorghe Asachi Gheorghe Asachi was a Moldavian-born Romanian prose writer, poet, painter, historian, dramatist and translator. An Enlightenment-educated polymath and polyglot, he was one of the most influential people of his generation...	1957	Lazăr Dubinovschi
4	George Bacovia George Bacovia George Bacovia was a Romanian symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventually established him in critical esteem alongside Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga and Ion Barbu as one of the most...	2001	Miliţa Petraşcu
5	Lucian Blaga Lucian Blaga -Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...	1992	Alexandra Picunov
6	Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie Cantemir Dimitrie Cantemir was twice Prince of Moldavia . He was also a prolific man of letters – philosopher, historian, composer, musicologist, linguist, ethnographer, and geographer....	1957	Nikolay Gorenashev
7	George Călinescu George Calinescu George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...	1997	Serghei Ganenko
8	George Coşbuc George Cosbuc George Coşbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy....	1996	Constantin Popovici
9	Ion Creangă Ion Creanga Ion Creangă was a Moldavian-born Romanian writer, raconteur and schoolteacher. A main figure in 19th century Romanian literature, he is best known for his Childhood Memories volume, his novellas and short stories, and his many anecdotes...	1957	Lev Averbuh
10	Alecu Donici Alecu Donici Alecu Donici was a Moldavian-born Romanian poet and translator.- Biography :...	1957	Ioan Cheptănaru
11	Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...	1997	Vasile Golea
12	Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...	1957	Lazăr Dubinovschi
13	Octavian Goga Octavian Goga Octavian Goga was a Romanian politician, poet, playwright, journalist, and translator.-Life:Born in Răşinari, nearby Sibiu, he was an active member in the Romanian nationalistic movement in Transylvania and of its leading group, the Romanian National Party in Austria-Hungary. Before World War I,...	2000	Cornel Medrea
14	Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...	1957	Ioan Cheptănaru
15	Alexandru Hâjdeu Alexandru Hâjdeu Alexandru Hâjdeu was a writer of Romanian origin, who lived in Bessarabia . He was the father of Romanian writer and philologist Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu....	1957	Vladislav Krakoveak
16	Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...	1990?	Mihail Ekobici
17	Mihail Kogălniceanu Mihail Kogalniceanu Mihail Kogălniceanu was a Moldavian-born Romanian liberal statesman, lawyer, historian and publicist; he became Prime Minister of Romania October 11, 1863, after the 1859 union of the Danubian Principalities under Domnitor Alexander John Cuza, and later served as Foreign Minister under Carol I. He...	1990?	?
18	Alexei Mateevici Alexei Mateevici Alexe Mateevici was a Moldavian poet.- Biography :He was born in the town Căinari, in Eastern Bessarabia, which was part of the Russian Empire, now in the Republic of Moldova...	1990	Dmitri Rusu-Skvortsov
19	Nicolae Milescu Nicolae Milescu Nicolae Milescu was a Moldavian writer, traveler, geographer, and diplomat. Milescu spoke 9 languages: Romanian, Latin, Greek, Modern Greek, French, German, Turkish, Swedish and Russian...	1957	Lev Averbuh
20	Constantin Negruzzi Constantin Negruzzi Constantin Negruzzi was a Romanian poet, novelist, translator, playwright and politician.Born in Trifeştii Vechi, Moldavia, he studied at home with a Greek teacher. He admitted in a later article that he learnt Romanian by himself, from a book written by Petru Maior...	1957	Lazăr Dubinovschi & Aleksandr Maiko
21	Liviu Rebreanu Liviu Rebreanu Liviu Rebreanu was a Romanian novelist, playwright, short story writer, and journalist.- Life :Born in Târlișua , Transylvania, then part of Austria-Hungary, he was the second of thirteen children born to Vasile Rebreanu, a schoolteacher, and Ludovica Diuganu, descendants of peasants...	27 November 2009	Miliţa Pătraşcu
22	Alecu Russo Alecu Russo Alecu Russo , was a Moldavian Romanian writer, literary critic and publicist....	1957	Vasili Larcenko
23	Mihail Sadoveanu Mihail Sadoveanu Mihail Sadoveanu was a Romanian novelist, short story writer, journalist and political figure, who twice served as acting republican head of state under the communist regime . One of the most prolific Romanian-language writers, he is remembered mostly for his historical and adventure novels, as...	1990?	Group of artists
24	Constantin Stamati Constantin Stamati Constantin Stamati was a Romanian/Moldovan writer and translator.He settled in Chişinău, Bessarabia after the 1812 partition of Moldavia at the end of the Russo-Turkish War, but made his literary debut in Iaşi.Stamati became a civil servant and official translator under the first Russian...	1957	Leonid Fitov
25	Nichita Stănescu Nichita Stanescu Nichita Stănescu was a Romanian poet and essayist. He is the most acclaimed contemporary Romanian language poet, loved by the public and generally held in esteem by literary critics.-Biography:...	1990?	Group of artists
26	Constantin Stere Constantin Stere Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea was a Romanian writer, jurist, politician, ideologue of the Poporanist trend, and, in March 1906, co-founder Constantin G. Stere or Constantin Sterea (Romanian; , Konstantin Yegorovich Stere or Константин Георгиевич Стере, Konstantin Georgiyevich Stere;...	1991	Giorgi Dubrovin
27	Grigore Vieru Grigore Vieru Grigore Vieru was a Moldavian poet and writer. He is mostly known for his poems and books for children. His poetry is characterized by vivid natural scenery, patriotism, as well as a venerated image of the sacred mother...	12 February 2010	Victor Macovei & Ruslan Tihonciuc