The first, wooden, triumphal arch was built hurriedly, after Romania gained its independence (1878), so that the victorious troops could march under it.

Another arch with concrete skeleton and plaster exterior of elaborate sculptures and decoration designed by the architect Petre Antonescu was built on the same site after World War I in 1922.

The arch exterior, which had seriously decayed, was replaced in 1935 by the current much more sober neoclassical design, more closely modelled on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Military parades are held beneath the arch each 1 December, with the occasion of Romanian National Day.

The sculptures with which the façades are decorated were created by famous Romanian sculptors such as Ion Jalea and Dimitrie Paciurea.