Gaze up at it and you’ll be immediately struck by the sheer size of Bucharest’s Parliament Palace. It ranks in the top three largest and heaviest buildings in the world, covering the equivalent of 51 football pitches. On this guided tour you’ll skip to the front of the line and discover more than just its bricks and mortar, it’s a live history lesson on Romania’s transition from dictatorship to democracy.
The building is now used to house Romania’s Parliament, as well as several museums, one of which will tell you all about the controversial construction of the opulent building. In the early 1980s, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romania’s communist dictator, began the 12-year build, displacing over 40,000 residents in the process. He never saw it completed though, after he was overthrown in the 1989 revolution – since then the building has been known as the People’s House.
As your guide expertly weaves you through the labyrinth of Neoclassical designed rooms inside, they’ll share stories about the making of the palace, like the fact that Ceaușescu demanded that all the materials be sourced from Romania as a point of national pride. That’s why, as you tour the grand staircase, which looks like something out of a fairytale, you’ll hear that it’s made of Transylvanian marble. Or, as you look at the five-tonne chandelier in the Union Hall, you’ll learn that it’s made of Murano-style Romanian crystal. You’ll find out about everything from the grand ballroom to the underground nuclear bunker and finish this tour on the second floor, looking out over the Fountains' Boulevard from the Dictator's Balcony.
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