The crown cast from a cannon

Chapter

1877–1878

Captured

28 November 1877

Calibre

90 mm

Forged into

the crown's muzzle-steel

In the autumn of 1877 the Romanian Army stood before Plevna, besieging Osman Pasha's fortress alongside the Russians. When the fortress fell, its guns became trophies, and one Ottoman 90 mm gun was set aside for a fate no gun had ever had.

The gun itself was never melted down whole. The Arsenal kept it, inscribed, as a relic: taken by the Romanian host at Plevna on 28 November 1877 (Old Style), it records that from it was worked the steel crown of King Carol I, 10 May 1881. Only its muzzle, the zburătura, the front part of the barrel, went into the crown.

That is the whole trick of this object: a weapon of a defeated empire, cut down and reforged into the symbol of the sovereignty won against it. Carol I would later say he chose steel, not gold, to honour the bravery of the soldiers who had taken it.

The siege itself belongs to our Plevna page; here the gun's second life begins. What the Arsenal's craftsmen did with one gun-muzzle in the spring of 1881 is the next chapter.

From this gun, taken by the Romanian host at Plevna on 28 November 1877, was worked in the Arsenal the steel crown of the King of Romania Carol I, 10 May 1881.

Inscription on the Plevna gun (Romanian original quoted in the method note)

Meanwhile, at Plevna, Osman Pasha surrenders on 28 November 1877 Old Style, 10 December by the modern calendar.

Chapter

1881

Blessed

10 May 1881

Weight

1,115 grams

Fleurons

8, all steel

The commission moved fast. On 11 April 1881 the prime minister, Dimitrie Brătianu, tasked the minister of culture, V. A. Urechia, with settling the form of the crown; two days later the scholars Alexandru Odobescu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu and Grigore Tocilescu agreed it should follow the medieval crowns of Mircea the Elder and Alexander the Good.

The painter Theodor Aman drew the design in ink, crown and sceptre on one plate, 45 by 27.5 centimetres, kept today at the Theodor Aman Museum. Then the pupils and soldier-craftsmen of the Army Arsenal cut the Plevna gun down to its muzzle, the so-called zburătura, and forged the crown. They made three near-identical models; the king's is the finished one.

Carol I came back from Sinaia on 3/15 May and found the crown on his desk at Cotroceni Palace. A week later, on 10 May 1881, it was blessed at the Metropolitan Church in Bucharest and placed on his head as Romania was proclaimed a kingdom.

The finished piece weighs 1,115 grams: a frontal circle with 8 fleurons and 8 pearls, every gem-model stylised in steel, the fleurons joined at the top by the “Danube Crossing” cross, the inside lined with red velvet.

It consists of a circle from which rise eight hemispheres holding the royal globe with the “Danube Crossing” cross. Inside it is lined with red velvet, against which the shining steel stands out beautifully.

Carol I, memoirs, on finding the crown at Cotroceni

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, the gold crown above the royal mantle is replaced by the Steel Crown on 14/26 March 1881, months before the coronation.

Chapter

1922

Coronation

15 October 1922

Ceremonies

15–17 October

Salutes

101 cannon shots

The ceremonies ran 15–17 October 1922: the coronation itself at Alba Iulia on the 15th, the festivities in Bucharest after. The decision had gone out to the authorities on 20 September 1922, and the Coronation Cathedral, raised in 1921–1922 for exactly this purpose, was consecrated that September.

The crowns travelled first. On 14 October 1922 Ion I. C. Brătianu brought them to Alba Iulia: the king's simple crown of 1877 Plevna-cannon metal on a yellow velvet cushion, and the queen's gold Byzantine-style diadem, made in Paris by the jeweller Falize.

The service was sung by Metropolitan Nicolae Bălan of Transylvania, with the Te Deum of Metropolitan-Primate Miron Cristea. But the crowning happened in the cathedral courtyard, not inside: Ferdinand, a Catholic, would not be crowned by an Orthodox hierarch, so he placed the steel crown on his own head and then crowned Marie, who knelt before him.

Across the country every church sang a Te Deum, and 101 cannon shots announced the coronation in each county capital. Then the sovereigns rode at the head of their regiments in the military parade, the steel gun of Plevna, saluting in gunfire, saluted back in steel.

The service was beautiful, solemn, not too long, the choir excellent. The inside of the church, though not large, is imposing, and the frescoes are good.

Queen Marie, diary note on the coronation service

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, the capital is decked with flags for the 16–17 October festivities and the royal entry.

Chapter

1940–2016

Anointing

6 September 1940

Museum since

1972

Arms restored

2016

The crown's third wearing came on 6 September 1940, the very day of his second accession, when Michael I was crowned and anointed with it by Patriarch Nicodim Munteanu in the Patriarchal Cathedral in Bucharest.

After the monarchy fell, the crown passed into state custody. Since the inauguration of the National Museum of Romanian History in 1972 it has stood in the Historical Treasury in Bucharest, among more than 3,000 pieces of precious metal and stone; a faithful copy is kept at Peleș.

In heraldry the crown never really left. It replaced the gold crown in the arms on 14/26 March 1881 and stayed through the 1921 great arms of Greater Romania, voted that July. The communist arms dropped it; Law 146/2016, published in the Official Gazette on 19 July 2016, put it back on the eagle's head.

And the steel travelled further still: when Carol I instituted the Order of the Crown at the proclamation of the Kingdom, its founding regulation required the order's small central crown to be made from the steel of the same Plevna gun.

Law amending Law no. 102/1992 on the country's coat of arms and the state seal, the crown returns to the eagle's head.

Law 146/2016, Official Gazette no. 542, 19 July 2016

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, the order's jewellers keep striking the small steel crown for every new Order of the Crown.