Update: Bucharest starts setting up Prince of Monaco monument

The Bucharest City Hall has started setting up the Prince Rainier III of Monaco monument in the capital’s Circului Park. The monument is made up of a statue of the Prince of Monaco and seven bronze, figurative elements representing life-size circus numbers. Prince Rainier III created the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival, an event the Bucharest Globus Circus attended several times. The ensemble was designed by sculptor Ionel Stoicescu. It cost approximately RON 8.5 million (EUR 2.06 million), News.ro reported. The funding for the ensemble comes from the Administration of Monuments and Touristic Patrimony (AMPT). The City Hall said the project was started and approved by previous city administrations. The current one approved the last payment, worth RON 480,000 (EUR 105,494), based on previous commitments. Current mayor Gabriela Firea said, in April of this year, she wanted to place a statue of the former US president Ronald Reagan in downtown Bucharest. The work on the Prince of Monaco monument is set to end by September 15. The monument will be set up in a grass-covered area and will not impact the existing trees, the City Hall explained. Local community group Lacul Tei Civic Initiative Group previously wrote in a Facebook post that the work could destroy the turf in the area and that they suspected it of being illegal. A protest against the setting up of the monument took place in Circului Park during the evening of August 22, europafm.ro reported. Update: The monument will be placed in an area close to the Circului Park, currently used as a parking lot, the Lacul Tei Civic Initiative Group said, quoted by News.ro. Sculptor Ionel Stoicescu worked on several other Bucharest monuments, including the EU Founding Fathers ensemble in the Herastrau Park, the Modura fountain, also in the Herastrau park, and the bust of Dr. Dan Setlacek, located in front of the Fundeni Institute. He also performed the restoration of the Dinicu Golescu ensemble, of the Dr. Constantin Istrati monument, the Mihail Cantacuzino monument or the Heroes monument in Leul square. Bucharest could also add several other statues to mark the centennial of the Great Union of 1918. editor@romania-insider.com