08/03/2024
Medicine College Bucharest - The "Carol Davila" University of Medicine.
The Palace of the Faculty of Medicine, located on the Boulevard of the Sanitary Heroes, number 8, in Cotroceni district, was built in the French neoclassical style, after the plans of Swiss architect Louis Pierre Blanc and inaugurated in 1903.
The "Carol Davila" University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest is the oldest school of medical education institute in Romania.
It bears the name of the prestigious Romanian doctor Carol Davila – known as the father of higher and secondary medical education, military and civilian in Romania.
In 1860 he was promoted to the rank of general.
Davila realised that in order to change something in the Romanian health system, he needed well-trained doctors, and so he laid the foundations of the first Romanian medical school establishing the National School of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1857.
The construction was an important step forward in the evolution of Romanian medical education.
The statue of Carol Davila.
The statue of Doctor Carol Davila, in front of the main entrance, is two meters tall, on a black granite pedestal of three and a half meters, is the work of Carol Storck, constructed in the workshops of the School of Arts and Crafts in Bucharest.
The statue was unveiled on the day the palace was inaugurated, in 1903.
Carol Davila was born in 1828 in Parma, Italy and died in 1884 in Bucharest, Romania. His real name was Carlo Antonio Francesco d'Avila, in French, Charles D'Avila, became Carol Davila in Romanian language.
He attended the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, graduating in February 1853. In the year of his graduation Barbu Știrbei, (then ruler of Wallachia) made a request for doctors at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris to send a graduate to organize the Romanian health system.
He arrived in Bucharest – then capital of the Principality of Wallachia – on March 1853, at not even 25 years old, after receiving his doctorate in Paris.
He was supposed to stay in Wallachia for only 3 years, but he stayed for the rest of his life.
Over time he built a robust medical system which he successfully implemented in both military and civilian life.
He reorganized the military hospital into wards, improved the medical care given to patients, founded a school of paramedics and in 1856 a secondary school of surgery, which would later become the National School of Medicine and in parallel, created the pharmaceutical and veterinary education system.
Davila continued his work during three different reigns: Barbu Știrbei (ruler of Wallachia in June 1849 - 29 October 1853 and 5 October 1854 - 25 June 1856), Alexandru Ioan Cuza (the first ruler of United Principality of Wallachia and Moldavia – Little Romania, ruled between 1859 – 1866) and of Carol the 1st (real name – Karl Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen – king of Little Romania between 1866-1914.
He didn't need any further introduction. The king Carol the 1st writes to his wife, Elizabeth: "Davila is everywhere you need him."
There was only one word written on his business card: Davila.
His students were sent to the great faculties in Europe: Paris, Rome, Berlin and Vienna, and returned doctors in medicine, becoming professors of the faculty in Bucharest.
Pediment.
The pediment represents an allegorical composition made by an anonymous artist. The magnificent design shows a young, crowned woman sitting majestically on a throne, showing a text from the open book she holds on her knees, symbolizing the science of medicine.
To her left, a young woman leaning with her left hand on the main character carefully follows the indicated text.
On the right, another young woman is holding a skull.
The allegorical young ladies have expressive faces, serene and harmonious, richly dressed.
In the edges of triangular pediment, at each side, two busts of children close the composition.
Grave of Carol Davila, Sector 5, Bucharest.
The grave of Doctor Carol Davila and his wife Ana Davila is located in a small park named Carol Davila, at the intersection of Ana Davila Street and Nicolae Paulescu Street, Sector 5, Bucharest.
The monument was built in 1903 and was decorated with a rectangular marble plaque with the bust of Davila, (which no longer exists), created by the artists Mayer and Wilhelm Stuttgart.
Over the years, many generations of doctors, pharmacists, dentists and, more recently, nurses and midwives with higher education have left the benches of this educational institution with a wealth of knowledge and skills appreciated throughout the country and throughout the world.
