A Symbol
Your statue reminded me of this one, both in its shape and in its connection to our ancestors. You may know it from another material and you have all passed it on your way from the airport during your visit to Bucharest, but it deserves a story of its own.
It's the copy of the "Lupa Capitolina" and this is why it's very important to our town. First of all, it's the symbol of our Latin origin, that we are very proud of, although it was not easy during the centuries being an isolated Latin spot in this distant corner of Europe, so different from our neighbours. This origin was denied many times throughout our history, for various political reasons, and we were forced to defend it. And, as it happens, the more you have to fight for a thing, the more you value it.
The statue is also dear to us because it was a gift from the town of Rome in 1906, on the anniversary of 1800 years since the Roman conquest. It's like a recognition, like a brotherhood sign. And I know there are copies in France and in Spain, too.
Moreover, similar statues were presented a few years later to two other important towns in our country: Cluj, in Transylvania and Chisinau, in Basarabia, two parts of Romania that were longtime torn from our territory and were then coming back to us. This is another symbol: of unity.
The statue has been placed in more than one place in the town, and it has even dissapeared after the Revolution, but it was recovered and it now stands in the Roman Square, the most appropriate for it, by me.
I particularly love it and I wish to it, just as I wish for your "citizen", to be heard.
