Parliament Palace

Hello dear readers! As I promised I will present you today a very important momnument for Romania! Therefore talk about Parliament Palace, or as it is also called as House of People.

Parliament Palace in Bucharest, Romania, measuring 270m by 240m, 86m high and 92m below ground. It has 12 levels and another 8 ground surface. According to the World Records Academy, Parliament House is the largest civilian administrative building for use as a surface in the world, most expensive administrative building in the world and the heaviest building in the world, going three times in Guinness World Records. Parliament House building is situated in the central part of the city (sector 5), the place that today is called Arsenal Hill, surrounded by Spring Street to the west and northwest, UN Avenue north of Liberty Avenue to the east and Route 13 September in the south. It is 10 minutes away from Unirii Square and 20 minutes from North Station (bus 123).

Hill where today is the Palace of Parliament is generally a creation of nature, with an initial height of 18 m, but Liberty Avenue side is raised artificially.

After the earthquake of March 4, 1977, Nicolae Ceausescu sought a site to develop a very large investment. He took the idea of ​​King Charles II in 1935, whose project was provided in the Chamber of Deputies on Arsenal Hill building. This project was designed by the greatest architects of the time. In 1938 he announced the start of demolition in order to open this pin. World War II came and things remained only on paper until 1983, when he started building the Parliament House, the official ceremony took place fundamental stone of the settlement on June 25, 1984.

The building has a usable area of ​​330,000 m², joined in "Guinness World Records" under "Administrative Buildings" at # 2 in the world after the Pentagon, and in terms of volume of 2,550,000 m³ of his people, 3rd in the world after the missile assembly building space from Cape Canaveral in Florida and Quetzalcoatl Pyramid in Mexico. For comparison it may be mentioned that the building exceeds 2% volume of Cheops pyramid in Egypt, and therefore some sources characterizes as one "Pharaoh".

Began during the Communist regime (calling themselves "Golden Age" of Romania and violently removed by the Revolution of 1989), the so-called Project Bucharest was an ambitious project of Ceausescu began in 1978 as a replica of the city Pyongyang, capital of North Korea. A project of systematization existed since the 30s (the time of Charles II) for the Union - Arsenal Hill.

After the earthquake of 1977 Nicolae Ceausescu ordered the "reconstruction" of Bucharest as a new town by itself. In the years 1978-79 there was a national competition for rebuilding city. The contest lasted nearly four years and was won by Anca Petrescu, a young architect only 28 years old, who was named chief architect of this project exceptionally controversial.

The yard itself began in 1980 with the demolition of over 7 km ² in the old city center and the relocation of over 40,000 people in this area. Of missing buildings include Vacaresti Monastery, Brancovenesc Hospital, National Archives, Republic Stadium, etc.. The works were made with forced labor conscripts, and the cost was minimized.

This project of reconstruction of the city, contained a number of buildings such as Parliament House - House Republic, Ministry of Defence, Radio House, Marriott Hotel - Guest House, House of the Romanian Academy, Spring Park and Union Boulevard - Victory of Socialism.

In 1989 the building costs were estimated at U.S. $ 1.75 billion, and in 2006 to 3 billion.

There are three vertical registers, which correspond also the distinct functional areas.

The building has about 1,000 rooms, 440 offices, over 30 halls and rooms, four restaurants, three libraries, two underground parking, a concert hall.

Name halls and salons of Palace of Parliament were elected after 1989, evoking events in the history of the Romanian people and personalities known worldwide.

Most are related to Roman aspiration for unification and the history of parliamentarianism in Romania.

I propose you to continue in the next 2-3 Wednesday with the presentation of the most important rooms of this magnificent monument.

God bless you!