Charles de Gaulle Square, Bucharest

Charles de Gaulle Square (Romanian: Piaţa Charles de Gaulle) is a square in northern Bucharest, Romania. It lies at the intersection of Aviatorilor, Constantin Prezan and Primăverii Boulevards, and Calea Dorobanţilor.

In the centre of the square stands Paul Neagu's Crucea Mileniului (Millennium Cross), built in the 1990s. In September 2006, on the occasion of the Francophonie Summit in Bucharest, the statue of Charles de Gaulle was unveiled. Sculpted by Mircea Spătaru, it stands 4.6 metres high and was financed by the Romanian government.

Herăstrău Park is located to the northwest of the square; Arcul de Triumf is located in its own square a few hundred metres to the west, on Constantin Prezan Boulevard; while Piaţa Victoriei, where the Romanian Government headquarters is situated, is located south, at the end of Aviatorilor Boulevard. The state-owned Romanian Television headquarters is located some 100 meters to the southeast, on Calea Dorobanţilor. The Primăverii neighbourhood, which used to include the houses of the Communist nomenklatura, is located to the northeast. Charles de Gaulle Plaza, an office building inaugurated in 2004, is located in the southeastern part of the square. Right beneath is the Aviatorilor metro station.

The square was originally known as Piaţa Jianu, after Iancu Jianu, a haiduc (brigand) and folk hero who fought together with Tudor Vladimirescu in the 1821 Wallachian Revolution. In 1940 it was renamed Piaţa Adolf Hitler, but the original name was restored shortly after 23 August 1944, when Romania joined the Allies and turned against the Axis Powers. However, following the Soviet occupation of Romania, in 1948 the name was changed to Piaţa Generalissim I. V. Stalin, lasting until the early 1960s, when Romania began to assert a more independent foreign policy towards the Soviet Union. A statue of Stalin stood in the square from 1951 until the summer of 1962, when four tanks and twelve bulldozers removed it from its place during a night. The square was subsequently renamed Piaţa Aviatorilor, Aviators' Square. The final change of the name happened in the late 1990s, when the square was named after Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces and the first president of the Fifth French Republic.