Save the memory of the Revolution - an initiative to preserve the messages on the University of Bucharest building (Photo & Video)

35 years after December 1989, civil society is calling for the protection of the last messages from the Revolution still present in Romania on the University Palace in Bucharest.

The revolutionaries’ organizations from Bucharest, Timișoara, and Cluj, along with many other voices of civil society and museums, are collecting signatures on SalvatiMemoriaRevolutiei.ro in support of preserving these messages of exceptional memorial value to demonstrate to the Rectorate of the University of Bucharest that their preservation is important for the entire society.

Inscriptiile Revolutiei din 1989 in pericol

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The message „Students from the Faculty of Philology, here people were killed. Step with respect. Here is blood” is still visible on the building’s facade, facing Edgar Quinet Street.

Another 59 inscriptions, including verses from „Awaken Thee, Romanian!”, are found beneath newer layers of paint. Although these are mentioned in the first book about the 1989 Revolution, the anthology „We Shall Die and Be Free,” published in 1990, they could be destroyed forever once the work moves from the inner courtyard to the exterior facade.

„In December 1989, at University Square in Bucharest, anti-communist protesters faced armed soldiers, stopped tanks with bare hands, and wrote on walls under gunfire: Down with the Dictatorship, We Want Political Pluralism, Free Elections.

In December 2024, we have a moral duty to preserve these signs of the Revolution for future generations, as evidence of the sacrifice and courage of all those who won our freedom in Bucharest and throughout Romania," emphasized the petition initiators.

"We call on the organizations and citizens of Romania to join the appeal to protect and enhance these inscriptions by signing the petition published on SalvatiMemoriaRevolutiei.ro, where more information about the history of these physical witnesses of the Revolution and the initiatives of the petition initiators over the past 12 months for their conservation can be found.

Around the world, such relics are preserved and valued. Entire sections of the Berlin Wall have been preserved for memorial purposes, keeping the graffiti.

The bullet holes in the walls of Kilmainham Gaol prison in Dublin have been preserved as evidence of the execution of Irish patriots and their sacrifice for independence. The inscriptions left on the walls of the Reichstag after the Battle of Berlin in 1945 have also been preserved," the organizations' message states.