The (in)famous Romanian's Palace of Parliament

Finally I arrived to the most famous or infamous Palace of Parliament. A must see star attraction is the big mama of monstrous buildings. The building is conceived at the height of Ceausescu’s communist fervor. The enormous showcase of Romanian craftsmanship with 12 floors now houses the chamber of deputies in the grandiose innards.

Controversy still rages around this massive edifice. More than a symbol of Ceausescu’s Communist vision – it stands today as a reminder of the price Romania paid to satisfy the egotistical whims of Nicolae and Elena.

It was built in 1984 to house the central committee, presidential office and state ministries. It is the world’s second largest building in surface, after USA’s Pentagon and the third largest in volume. Over 700 architects and three shifts of 20,000 workers labored on it 24 hours a day for 5 years. It has 12 storey and 3100 furnished rooms. Beneath it is a vast nuclear bunker, plummeting 200m deep.

I took a 45 minutes English tour to have a sneak preview of the interior of the building and its staggering insight into Ceausescu’s ego-driven vision. It is to my amazement that this is indeed a very huge over-size and over-engineered concrete building. The current government is trying to rent it out (by room) for events, but still enormously low in term of the utilization rate.