Ceausescu Palace,
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Romania
Ceausescu PalaceVisited: October 2001 More pictures of Ceausescu Palace:
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Inside, you can join a tour and the guide will tell you all kinds of details of the building that was supposed to house ministries, high functionaries, and Communist Party offices. It has been nicknamed Madman's house, but also, mistakenly, referred to as Ceaușescu Palace although it was never his intention to use it as such. Nicolae had a serious problem and wanted everything to be bigger, longer, higher, wider. To achieve this, nothing was spared. All materials came from Romania, and some parts (notably, stairs) had to be rebuilt several times simply because the Ceaușescu's were not happy. In the construction, the superiority of this sick couple was to come out clearly. At present, the building is being used as a Parliament Palace and for all kinds of gatherings.
From outside, the building looks colossal, and it is, because it is the second largest building in the world (the first being the Pentagon). To build it, 7000 houses, churches, monasteries, synagogues and a hospital had to be destroyed. Decoration of the palace is lavish, with marble and gold leafs recurrent materials; the building has some 4,500 chandeliers alone! An enormous workload of people (700 architects alone) constructed the building in just 4 years - pity that it did not help the Romanians much. Justice was served because the Ceaușescus did not live to see the building completed.
Although he was executed in 1989, Ceaușescu has left a landmark building that is here to stay and to remind Bucharest of its grim recent history. For a few years, the Romanians were undecided about what to do with it, but the building was saved from demolition and is open to the public. It is a must-see, to better understand the actual situation, and also to see where megalomaniacs can lead to. At least it is easy to find: it towers high above its surrounding area.
