Starting from an older idea, the Palace of Parliament building was built during the time of Nicolae Ceauşescu &incirc;a period of great economic deprivation. The dictator's tendency was, on the one hand, to concentrate all the central organs of the state in a single building, and on the other, Ceauşescu wanted a seismically safe home that could withstand a possible nuclear attack.
From an architectural point of view, the Palace of Parliament is one of the most controversial buildings in Romania: Anca Petrescu1 identified it with Buckingham Palace in London and the Palace of Versailles in France, and the architects of the time with “little Pyongyang”, having an eclectic style, ˆloaded with contradictory elements2.
The building, in Anca Petrescu3's vision, is divided into 3 main registers: the first register - the area of the main halls, galleries and cabinets; the second register - the office area; the third register - belvedere, with three rooms on each floor.
The building has a surface area of 365,000 m2 and occupies 1st place in the world in the Book of Records in the chapter of administrative buildings (for civil use), respectively 3rd place in the world in terms of volume; it is the heaviest and most expensive in the world4.
Other dimensions of the building: length - 270 m, width - 245 m, &incirc;height - 84 m (above ground level), depth 16 m (below ground level), built-up area on the ground - 73,615 sq m.
The building was built with almost entirely Romanian materials, including: 1,000,000 cubic meters of marble, 550,000 tons of cement, 700,000 tons of steel, 2,000,000 tons of sand, 1,000 tons of basalt, 900,000 cubic meters of wood essences, 3,500 tons of crystal, 200,000 cubic meters of glass, 2,800 chandeliers, 220,000 square meters of carpets, 3,500 square meters of leather.
The entire construction is the result of the efforts of over 100,000 people, with nearly 20,000 workers working in three shifts 24 hours a day during peak periods. Also, between 1984 and 1990, 12,000 soldiers participated in the construction.
&Incirc;Following the urbanization campaign, shortly after the 1977 earthquake5, and his friendship with Kim Il-sung, the North Korean leader, Ceauşescu initiated the plan to build a new political-administrative center, on the Uranus Hill area, the high part of the Dâmbovița cornice confirmed by specialists as safe for the construction of monumental buildings.
&Ince 1980, an area representing a fifth of Bucharest (4.5 km long and 2 km wide) was demolished, an area equivalent to several arrondissements of Paris or the area of Venice6.
Although the initial project had 80,000 square meters, the People's House had an area 5 times larger.
20 churches were destroyed, 8 were moved, 10,000 homes were demolished, and over 57,000 families were evacuated. The following were demolished: Văcăreşti Monastery, the Sacred Hill for the History of Bucharest at Mihai Vodă, the Brancovenesc Hospital, the first forensic institute in the world, the Union Hall, the Operetta in Senate Square, the Army Arsenal and the Central Military Museum.
Because the Ceauşescus did not understand architectural plans, 1/1000 scale models of the entire city of Bucharest were built from polystyrene, with streets, squares, blocks of flats, houses and monuments, rendered in relief and with certain details. Over this model, there was a drawbridge, on which the Ceauşescus walked and gave directions. The model was modified after each visit of the two (almost weekly)7.
Îat the time of the 1989 Revolution, the building was 60% completed. Work continued ∫between 1992 – 1996, but at a slower pace.
ÎIn 1993, by a Decision of the Chamber of Deputies8 the movement of the Chamber's activity from the Patriarchal Palace to the House of the Republic was established. A year later, on May 6, 1994, by another Decision of the Chamber of Deputies, the International Conference Center was established in this building.
the new Plenary Hall was inaugurated.
27 years after the Revolution, the building that was intended to be a construction that would glorify socialism, communism and totalitarianism is today a symbol of democracy through the institutions it hosts (Chamber of Deputies, Senate, Legislative Council, Constitutional Court).
1Anca Petrescu was the chief architect of the building, who at only 28 years old won almost all the competitions organized by Ceauşescu for the construction of the building; Dr. Arch. Nicolae Vlădescu said that “she won a competition of circumstances, not an architectural one” ;
2Gheorghe Leahu ”Bucharest Little Paris”, Regia Autonomă – Official Gazette
3Report for the Architecture Foundation in Brussels and for the National House of Monuments and Historical Sites in Paris (1990)
4 World Records Academy – https://www.worldrecordacademy.com/ - consulted April 2015
5The earthquake of March 4, 1977 had 7.2 degrees on the Richter scale and caused over 1400 human victims
6Gheorghe Leahu ”Bucharest Little Paris”, Regia Autonomă – The Operetta in Senate Square, the Army Arsenal and the Central Military Museum.
7 Gheorghe Leahu ”Bucharest Little Paris”, Regia Autonomă – The Official Gazette
8 Chamber of Deputies Decision no. 31/16 March 1993
