Bucharest Metropolitan Cathedral, lithography from 1866

The Mitropoly Hill played an important role in the political life, as this was for centuries home not only to the Metropolitan Cathedral of the country, but to important state institutions, such as the Boyar Council, and later the Chamber of Deputies.
The picture, a lithography from 1866, captures a moment in the history, the popular assembly on the Mitropoly Hill, held on 23rd February 1866, when following the abdication of Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza, the crown was offered to Prince Philippe of Belgium, Count of Flanders. He refused to be the new Romanian sovereign, and later the throne was accepted by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, the future King Carol I of Romania.