The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier () is a monument located in Bucharest, Romania. Dedicated to the soldiers who died while fighting for Romania, it is one of many such national tombs across the world.
The monument was built in 1923 to commemorate Romanian soldiers who died during World War I.
History
In 1923 it was decided to choose one of the fallen soldiers to represent all who had sacrificed their lives during the war.
The order no. 567/1 May 1923 of the Ministry of War ruled that a war orphan in the 1st grade of a military school would choose the coffin of the Unknown Soldier. The military schools in Iași, Craiova, Chișinău and Dealu Monastery submitted the names of their best students who met the respective criteria. Out of the four candidates the war orphan Amilcar Săndulescu, a 12-year student at the Dimitrie Sturdza Military High School in Craiova (nowadays "Tudor Vladimirescu" Military College), whose father died on the front in 1917, was selected.
Ten unidentified soldiers who died at Mărășești, Mărăști, Oituz, Târgu Ocna, Jiu, Prahova, Bucharest, in Dobruja, Transylvania and Bessarabia were exhumed and laid in oak coffins, doubled with zinc, inside the "Assumption of Mary" Church in Mărășești.
On May 14, 1923, during the solemn ceremony organized at Mărășești, Amilcar Săndulescu knelt in front of the fourth coffin and said: "This is my father".