Brief overview of the Revolution Memorial Timișoara

The Revolution Memorial was established in 1990, with the main purpose of building two monuments in the memory of the Martyr-Heros who died in December 1989.
During the 30 years of activity, our association has been recognized by national fora. Therefore, in 2000, the Revolution Memorial was declared an objective of national interest and a National Centre for Research, Documentation and Public Information.
In 2011, the Revolution Memorial was declared an association of public utility and in 2019 we also received the recognition from the Romanian Presidency, being awarded the decoration of “The Cultural Merit in the rank of Knight” for the accomplishments throughout those 30 years.
During the first 10 years of activity, the Revolution Memorial managed to build in Timișoara not two, but twelve monuments! These monuments are located in the places where the demonstrators fought against the forces of repression, and at our headquarters there is a 3D map with the places in which the monuments built by us are located.
Since the early years after 1990, the Revolution Memorial began to develop a database regarding the importance of the year 1989 for Timișoara and Romania.
At the beginning, the database included national press collections and press collections from Timișoara, especially articles about the Revolution, and about what happened in Timișoara and Romania: testimonials and statements of the participants in the Revolution, photographs, images which later on were also followed by TV talk-shows dedicated to the Revolution. Thus, this database increased from year to year.
The next step consisted in highlighting this database. This is how it started the documentation and research of the events of 1989 with qualified personnel: journalists, historians and researchers.
As a consequence of this documentation, it was born the necessity of starting our own publishing house, a fact which happened in 2011.
Over the years, we managed to publish a specialized magazine which reached number 26, and a number of over 40 book titles, all of them referring to the events of 1989.
Among these, we can mention The Timișoara Trial, which was published in nine volumes, and an Encyclopedia of the Romanian Revolution in three volumes. We’re attempting to bring the historical truth in its place by means of these books and also by organizing some permanent and temporary exhibitions.
The Revolution Memorial offers its visitors an overview of some important moments of the recent history of Europe and Romania.
At our headquarters, you can visit the following permanent exhibitions: “The Romanian Revolution from December 1989 in images” („Revoluţia Română din Decembrie 1989 în imagini”), “Cold War Timeline” („Cronologia Războiului Rece”), “The Berlin Wall - A border through Germany” („Zidul Berlinului - O graniţă prin Germania”), “In Solidarity with Romania” („Solidari cu România”), “Nicolae Ceauşescu’s cult of personality” („Cultul personalităţii lui Nicolae Ceauşescu”), but also other exhibitions.
We complete the highlight of the documents and information we have by documentary movies as well. At our headquarters, you can watch a number of documentary movies, the most important being the movie “We don’t die!” („Noi nu murim!”), made by the Revolution Memorial.
It’s about an interesting and consistent movie, subtitled in various languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian and Serbian, which lasts for 30 minutes. For our guests, we provide guidance in various languages: English, German and Hungarian.
We welcome our visitors daily, from Monday to Friday, between the hours 8 am-4 pm, Saturday between the hours 10 am-2 pm and, if there are groups of tourists interested, by appointment, we are at your disposal outside the visiting hours as well.
Gino Rado
Chairperson of the Revolution Memorial Timișoara