After the
Union of Transylvania with Romania of 1 December 1918, the
University of Upper Dacia was organised at Cluj, ultimately being renamed
King Ferdinand I University. It was officially opened on 1 February 1920 in the presence of
King Ferdinand I and of the royal family. Representatives of the
Allies of World War I and of countries neutral during the
First World War were also present. The following year, the
Italian state made a gift to the city of Cluj a copy of the
Capitoline Wolf, after it had already given
one to
Bucharest in 1906 and another
one to
Chișinău in 1921. In the following years a fourth would be sent to
Timișoara and a fifth to
Târgu Mureș. They all symbolised the unity of Romanians from all parts of the country and their
Latinity. The Cluj-Napoca monument, brought to Cluj by a delegation of 200 Italians, mostly students, is a faithful copy of the
Capitoline Wolf, with
Romulus and
Remus beneath her. To it was added a bas-relief of
Emperor Trajan, executed by sculptor
Ettore Ferrari, along with the inscription
Alla citta di Cluj, Roma Madre, MCMXXI ("To the City of Cluj, Mother Rome, 1921"). It was decided to place the monument in
Unirii Square, in front of the
Statue of Matthias Corvinus. The first Romanian
mayor of Cluj,
Iulian Pop, unveiled the monument on 28 September 1921 in the presence of over 25,000 residents. After the
Second Vienna Award in 1940, a significant part of Cluj's Romanian population was forced to leave the city; the statue too was taken away to safety. After
World War II, the statue was brought back to Cluj, but the prevailing political climate did not permit the statue to be put back in its original location, so it was placed in front of the
University, where it remained until 1973, when the statue was again placed in Unirii Square. A group of statues of members of the
Transylvanian School was set up in its place in front of the university. In 1994 the statue was removed from its location at the intersection of
Eroilor Boulevard and Unirii Square and replaced with the
Memorandum Signers' Monument, erected in honour of the men who signed the
Transylvanian Memorandum and had the strength to stand up to the
magyarization measures against Romanians being undertaken by the
Austro-Hungarian regime. The dedication of the monument took place exactly 100 years after the memorandum signers were sent to prison. The Statue of the She-Wolf was moved to the Transylvanian History Museum, where it was restored by the sculptor
Liviu Mocan, later being placed in the middle of Eroilor Boulevard. == See also ==