A building of absurd magnitude, the Parliamentary Palace hosts Romania’s Parliament, but also perfectly encapsulates Nicolae Ceaușescu’s megalomania.
Description
At 365,000 square meters, it’s the largest administrative building in the world, intended as a residence, and despite containing reception halls, museums, and government offices and the parliament hall is still almost three-quarters empty.
The palace was raised at an enormous cost, in terms of money but also lives, as thousands of people are claimed to have died during its construction in the second half of the 1980s.
The palace was the focal point of Ceaușescu’s pompous redesign of Bucharest following an earthquake in 1977, and had eight subterranean levels, at the bottom of which was a nuclear bunker.
You have to go in to gauge the full, stupefying size of this building, paying a visit to the Museum of the Palace, Museum of Communist Totalitarianism, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art.
For more info visit www.thecrazytourist.com