Nicolae Ceausescu was born on January 26, 1918 in the village of Scornichesti in the family of a poor peasant. After he graduated from four classes, his parents decided that an extra mouth was useless (Nick was one of nine children) - and they attached the 11-year-old boy as an apprentice shoemaker in Bucharest. Four years later, he joined.

He was arrested more than once for inciting a strike and distributing leaflets, which only added to his respect in the eyes of his fellow party members. In prison, Nicolae's communist convictions only grew stronger, besides, there he met the future Romanian leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, immediately entering the circle of his entourage. After his release from prison, the former cellmate began to actively promote Nikolay up the party ladder.

Photo: Steve Burton / Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images

Having occupied the presidency after the death of Gheorghiu-Deja, Ceausescu was first known as a liberal: he softened the regime, gave limited self-government to enterprises. In addition, foreign literature appeared on the shelves in bookstores, and Romanians were no longer imprisoned for talking to foreigners.

Of course, it was not without exemplary severity: having decided to fight for an increase in the birth rate, he banned abortion and contraceptives, raised taxes on childlessness and complicated the divorce procedure. However, the country reacted to this with understanding.

The height of liberalism in Romania seemed 1968, when Ceausescu not only did not send his troops to Czechoslovakia to disperse the Prague Spring, but also condemned the actions of the USSR. In Romania itself, this was received with enthusiasm: on the wave of his popularity, he held the X Congress of the party, at which he got rid of his disloyal party members. Now Ceausescu had his hands untied: nothing could stop him on his way to unlimited power.

Gray cardinal

In all decisions, he was supported by his wife Elena, whom he met at a military parade in 1939. Ceausescu's wife also did not manage to finish even a rural school, but this did not in any way temper her ambitions.

As soon as she became the first lady, she imagined herself to be a great scientist and began to take part in various scientific conferences. Scientists of Romania, in order to avoid problems, were forced to adhere to one rule: in all their publications, be sure to indicate the name of Elena Ceausescu as one of the co-authors.

In fact, she was the gray cardinal of this regime. She held several high posts at once and used them very skillfully. As Minister of Culture, Helen devastated museums to furnish her residence, and her relatives occupied all sorts of sinecures.

In the footsteps of Mao

Both Ceausescu's spouses were greatly influenced by a trip to China and North Korea in 1971. Nicholas was fascinated by East Asian socialism: everywhere he was greeted by cheering crowds, workers were working in factories, portraits of comrades Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung smiled at him from every wall.

Returning to his homeland, he enthusiastically set about implanting a cult of personality. With his light submission, journalists and writers began to exercise in toadying, vying with each other to invent new epithets for the Carpathian leader: Genius of the Carpathians, Danube of Wisdom, Treasure of Reason and Charisma, Source of Our Light, Creator of the Epoch of Incomparable Renewal. Gradually, he himself began to believe it.

The President was portrayed as a god-like great leader, his speeches were greeted with staged applause. “The receptions and celebrations organized in his honor could have been envied by the queen herself,” she wrote about this. At the same time, the locals behind the eyes compared him with Vlad Tepes - Count Dracula.

Elena was also eager to snatch a piece of the government pie. Noticing how much power is concentrated in the hands of Mao Zedong's wife, she decided to follow her example. Returning home, Elena, easily pushed around by her husband, easily persuaded him to appoint her first deputy prime minister. In fact, she became the second person in the state, although many Romanians were sure that in fact it was she who was behind all the decisions in the country. As noted by The Telegraph, it was she who was responsible for the genocide of 60 thousand people and undermining the country's national economy.

The dictator's wife was glorified no less than her husband. In addition to the title of “Mother of the Nation”, Elena Ceausescu was also quite officially called the “Torch of the Party”, “Woman-Hero” and “Guiding Beam of Culture and Science”.

Dictator's habits

Ceausescu was very concerned about his health and appearance. He ate a balanced diet, did not eat chocolate, never smoked, and went to rest every afternoon.

State television channels were ordered to portray the 1.65-meter dictator as physically attractive and courageous. Those who break this rule faced severe penalties. So, one of the producers, who did not check that the Romanian leader was blinking and stuttering from the screen, was suspended from work for three months.

Hunting was his passion. Previously, Ceausescu's assistants had to pump up the bears with sedatives so that he could shoot them as much as he wanted. Friends or co-workers who went hunting with him were forbidden to kill more animals than he did.

Despite the fact that expensive clothes from foreign countries were brought to the dictator, which he wore to negotiations and official events, at meetings with factory workers or farmers, as taught by his wife, he appeared in an old shabby coat in order to show the Romanians that he was a man of the people.

The more power was concentrated in the hands of the Ceausescu family, the more suspicious Nicolae became: he was looking for bugs in Buckingham Palace, where he was kindly placed during a visit to London, then he ran to disinfect his hand with alcohol after shaking hands with the queen.

He constantly carried with him a whole arsenal of chemical protection. Most of all he feared that he would be poisoned. The head of the president's personal security tried all the dishes intended for Ceausescu, clothes were sent to him in sealed parcels from Bucharest so that no one could soak them with poison.

Dog life

Once the leader of the Liberal Party of Great Britain presented the dictator with a Labrador puppy. Ceausescu named him Corbu. Soon, a government limousine with a motorbike cortege began to drive around the streets of the Romanian capital - the personal transport of "Comrade Corbu", as the dog was nicknamed by the people.

Korbu lived in a separate villa, and at night he was taken to the palace to the owner, who loved it when the dog slept at his feet. Subsequently, the dog received the rank of colonel of the Romanian army. In addition, the Romanian ambassador in London had to buy dog ​​food from Sainsbury's supermarket every week, which was delivered by diplomatic mail to Bucharest.

On the road to the abyss

The economic model chosen by Ceausescu did not justify itself: if at the beginning of the 70s production in Romania grew by an average of 10 percent a year, then by the end of the decade it did not exceed 3 percent. The country was slipping faster and faster into an economic crisis. However, the dictator here also wanted to show the whole world that the country is able to pay off its external debt.

It was at this time that he decided to immortalize his name in stone and at the same time confirm the status of a dictator - to build something gigantic, one of a kind. The Palace of Parliament became it. In order to clear a place for such a large-scale construction, the Romanian leader wiped out 19 churches, 6 synagogues and 30 thousand houses. From 1983 to 1989, about 40 percent of the country's GDP went to the construction of a palace with an area of ​​333 thousand square meters. By the way, despite the huge financial and human resources spent on construction, the building was completed after the death of the couple. Currently, it is the seat of the parliament. The palace is second in size only to the American building.

However, due to such gigantic spending and the desire to pay the national debt, he introduced austerity in the country: no more than 15 percent of local textiles fell into stores, no more than 6.3 percent of the fuel produced in the country reached the population, and there was not enough medicine and food.

With special zeal, the country was saving electricity: television broadcast only two to three hours a day, apartments were allowed to keep no more than one 15-watt light bulb. At night, all of Romania, except for the dictator's palace, plunged into darkness. Ceausescu's residence continued to shine with all the lights.

However, the goal for which it was all started was achieved: if in 1980 the external debt was $ 11 billion, then by 1986 it had dropped to $ 6.4 billion, and in April 1989 Ceausescu triumphantly announced the full payment of external debt. No other socialist country could boast of such an achievement. Then Ceausescu could not even imagine that until the end of his presidency and life itself, there were just over six months left.

In 1989, in the predominantly Hungarian town of Timisoara, small protests erupted over the arrest of a local priest, which gradually spilled out of the city. The atmosphere quickly heated up: strikes and demonstrations spread throughout the country. On December 20, Ceausescu left for Iran on an official visit, but returned on the same day, since the situation had already got out of control. On December 21, the dictator gathered a rally in the Romanian capital and addressed the people with a speech in which he condemned the Timisoara hooligans.

However, instead of the usual applause and cheers, Ceausescu heard screams of indignation. The dictator and his wife decided to flee, but they failed to escape from the country. The military sided with the rebels and handed the couple over to the National Salvation Front tribunal. Ceausescu was found guilty of the Romanian genocide and sentenced to death. According to eyewitnesses, there was no end to those wishing to carry it out. Nikolai and Elena were taken out into the courtyard of the barracks and shot near the soldiers' restroom. A news presenter on one of the Romanian TV channels said live: "The Antichrist was killed on Christmas Day."

During the reign of Ceausescu, the Romanians experienced serious interruptions in food, fuel, electricity, they lacked medicines and many things. The country was dominated by nationalism and the cult of personality brought to the point of absurdity. Nicolae and his wife Elena's policies were brutal and repressive. Despite this, according to the results of a public opinion poll, 46 percent of the population said they would vote for Ceausescu if he now took part in the elections.

1. Hungarian Parliament. Budapest

The building is in the neo-gothic style with elements of oriental architecture. Built from 1885 to 1904. The Palace of Westminster certainly served as a model, but, in our opinion, the building of the Hungarian Parliament even surpasses its "older brother" in beauty. Architect - Imre Steindl.

The parliament building is, in principle, the largest in Hungary. The height of the central dome is 27 m, diameter is 20 m. In the wings on both sides of the dome are the meeting rooms of the parliament (previously the Hungarian parliament was bicameral). Conferences are currently being held in the second hall. The facade is decorated with statues of the rulers of Hungary and Transylvania. During the socialist period of Hungarian history, the spire was crowned with a red star. In the domed hall of parliament, decorated with 16 statues of kings and rulers of Hungary, since 2000 (1100th anniversary of Hungary's statehood) the crown of St. Stephen, scepter, orb and sword are kept.

2. Parliament of Great Britain. Palace of Westminster, London

One of the most famous parliament buildings in the world. Initially - the residence of the English monarchs. The first Westminster Hall was built in the 11th century, and from time to time it was overgrown with outbuildings. In 1834, most of the palace burned down in a fire, and a royal commission was created to restore it, which, out of 97 proposed projects, chose the project of the architect Charles Barry. Upon completion of construction in 1860, he was awarded the knighthood.

3. Parliament of Canada, Ottawa

The Parliament of Canada is a whole parliamentary hill - a complex of neo-Gothic buildings. The central block was built in the 1860s, but during a fire in 1916 only the library survived, where today there is a statue of Queen Victoria. The rest had to be rebuilt. In the center, instead of the Victoria Tower, the Tower of Peace (96 m high) was built in honor of the Canadians who died in the First World War. The largest room in the complex is the Confederation Hall, where the meetings of the deputies take place.

4. US Congress, Capitol, Washington

The Capitol is the seat of the US Congress on Capitol Hill. It is connected to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial by a 1800-meter alley. To the east of the parliamentary center is the Library of Congress and the US Supreme Court.

The first stone in the foundation of the Capitol was laid by George Washington himself in 1793. The opulent Empire-style building was built by several generations of architects. In November 1800, Congress met in the unfinished Capitol, but in 1814 the British burned it. It took five years for the restoration work. From 1820 to 1827, the southern and northern wings of the building were connected by a passage, over which a dome was erected.

After 30 years, the Capitol began to expand, but with the preservation of the unique elements of the original building - for example, the column capitals decorated with tobacco leaves and corn cobs instead of the traditional Mediterranean flora for classicism. Instead of the old dome, a new, cast-iron dome was built, 87 meters high and weighing over 4,000 tons. Architect - Thomas Walter.

In the 20th century, the Capitol underwent minor modernization (installation of elevators, central heating), and in 1959-1960, its eastern facade was lengthened by 10 meters.

5. National Congress of Argentina, Buenos Aires

In 1895, a competition was announced for the construction of the National Congress Palace, for which 28 projects from around the world were submitted. The victory was won by the Italian Vittorio Meano, who decided that the building should be built in the neoclassical style. The palace was opened in 1906, but finishing work continued for another forty years. The main decoration of the palace is undoubtedly the 80-meter dome. On the stairs in front of the palace, there are figures of winged lions and wrought-iron lanterns. Winged predators also adorn the pediment on the sides. On the platform behind the pediment is an 8-meter bronze quadriga, a two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses.

6. German Parliament, Berlin

The Reichstag building, or the Reichstag, is a historical building in which from 1894 to 1933 the government body of the same name sat - the Reichstag of the German Empire and the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. Since 1999, the renovated building houses the Bundestag - the German parliament, the most visited parliament in the world for tourists.

The building was designed by the architect Paul Vallot in the Italian High Renaissance style. The first stone was laid in 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The construction lasted 10 years and was completed already under Wilhelm II. The building was equipped with the latest technology: its own electric generator, double glazed windows, central heating, plumbing, toilets, pneumatic mail, telephones, electric fans ...

On February 27, 1933, parts of the Reichstag were badly damaged by arson. The National Socialists blamed the arson on the communists and used it to gain emergency powers and crack down on political opponents. Rare meetings of the Reichstag, which had lost its political significance, took place elsewhere, and in 1942 they stopped altogether. Most of the premises of the Reichstag were not damaged by fire, and until 1939 they housed the Reichstag administration and the library. In 1941, the corner towers of the Reichstag were converted into anti-aircraft towers. During the war, almost all the windows were walled up, and the building served as a bomb shelter and hospital.

In the last days of the war, fierce battles were fought around the Reichstag, which was declared the main symbol of Nazi Germany.

On April 30, 1945, the first assault red flag was hoisted over the Reichstag; on the night of May 1, several more scarlet panels appeared on the Reichstag, which were subsequently destroyed during the fighting. On the walls of the Reichstag, Soviet soldiers inscribed many inscriptions, some of which were left during the restoration of the building.

In the first post-war decade, the building, which turned out to be in the western part of Berlin, was in a dilapidated state. In 1954, due to the threat of collapse, the remains of the dome were blown up. It was decided to carry out repairs, but in the conditions of divided Germany, no one knew what the building could be used for.

The renovation work dragged on until 1973.

After the reunification of Germany on October 4, 1990, the first meeting of the first all-German Bundestag took place. In 1991, the Bundestag in Bonn decided to move to Berlin in the Reichstag building. On a competitive basis, the reconstruction of the Reichstag was entrusted to the English architect Norman Foster.

In May 1995, the Bundestag Council of Elders, after lengthy debate, decided to erect a modern glass dome, inside which people could walk.

7. National Congress of Brazil, Brasilia

The National Congress Palace was built in 1960 by the famous Latin American architect Oscar Niemeyer in the form of a parallelepiped with two skyscrapers about one hundred meters high, connected by a three-level passage and two hemispheres on the sides. Under the domed hemisphere is the Federal Senate, and under the bowl is the Chamber of Deputies. The apparatus of the congress works in skyscrapers. The palace is connected to neighboring buildings by underground tunnels

8. Georgian Parliament, Kutaisi

Since 2013, the Georgian parliament has moved from Tbilisi to a new building in Kutaisi. The author of the new building is the Spanish architect Alberto Domingo Cabo. Under a large glass dome with semicircular beams, there are 7 floors with a meeting room and 217 offices. According to the idea of ​​Kabo, its appearance should personify lightness, transparency, but at the same time the power of the state of Georgia. The cost of this "power" is $ 83 million, and the total area is 40,000 square meters. m.

9. European Parliament, Strasbourg

A special place in modern Strasbourg is occupied by two buildings: the building of the European Parliament and the Palace of Europe, in which the administrative bodies of the European Union are located. The grandiose building of the European Parliament was built in 1999 in the form of a giant wing of glass and steel, reflected in the waters of the Ile River. It is crowned with a 60-meter round, specially unfinished tower. There is information that in this way the architect hinted at the famous painting by Pieter Bruegel "The Tower of Babel". Plenary sessions in the huge hall of the European Parliament are held 12 times a year and last about four days (for the rest of the sessions, the European Parliament meets in Brussels and Luxembourg). At this time, access to visitors is open here.

10. Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, Astana

The high-tech building, which houses one of the two chambers of the parliament of Kazakhstan - the Mazhilis - was built in three years (from 2002 to 2004) in the new center of the capital of the state. The construction was carried out by the Turkish company "Ahsel Inshaat". The building is located near the main square of the new administrative center, the residence of the Head of State, the Supreme Court and the Senate and is a complex of four blocks with a 22-storey high-rise building and a hall for joint sessions of the Houses of Parliament. The buildings of the Mazhilis and the Senate are linked by a transitional gallery. The apartments of the chairman of the Mazhilis are located on the 21st floor: the speaker's office, offices of the staff of his secretariat, the reception hall for official delegations, the meeting room of the Mazhilis bureau.

11. Parliament of Norway, Oslo

The seat of the Storting, the Norwegian parliament, is located in the center of Oslo. The yellow brick building designed by Swedish architect Emil Viktor Langlet took six years to build and was commissioned on March 5, 1866.

12. Swiss Parliament, Bern

The Federal Palace is a building in the center of Bern that houses the Federal Assembly (parliament) and the Federal Council (government).

The palace was built in 1894-1902 by the project of the Swiss-Austrian architect Hans Auer. The height of the palace is 64 meters, inside the building the ceiling of the dome reaches its highest height - 33 meters. In the center of the dome is the mosaic coat of arms of Switzerland with an inscription in Latin "One for all, and all for one", surrounded by 22 coats of arms of all cantons of the country as of 1902. Outside the mosaic is the coat of arms of the country's youngest canton, Jura, created in 1979.

The palace is open for free visits almost all year round. There are even galleries specially installed for visitors, from where you can watch parliamentary sessions.

13. Parliament of Sweden, Stockholm

The parliament building is located on Helgeandsholmen Island in central Stockholm. It was built according to the project of the architect Aron Johansson in the neoclassical style, the facade is in the neo-baroque style. Construction was carried out from 1897 to 1905.

14. Parliament of Portugal, Lisbon

The São Bento Palace, or the Palace of the National Assembly, is the seat of the Portuguese Parliament in the center of Lisbon. Built in the 17th century in the spirit of mannerism as a ceremonial building of a Benedictine monastery. Subsequently, the building was rebuilt, especially after the 1755 earthquake. In 1834, the palace was withdrawn from the church and transferred to the state as the seat of the Cortes. A fire in 1895 damaged the conference room of the lower house of Parliament, and further changes in the architecture of the palace were inevitable. Portuguese architect Miguel Venturaa Terra worked on the new project. The reconstruction work continued until 1940. By the way, the square in front of the palace is a traditional place for political demonstrations.

15. Parliament of San Marino, City of San Marino

The Grand and General Council of San Marino (the unicameral parliament of San Marino) sits in the Palazzo Publico building - the State Palace of San Marino. The construction of the Palazzo Publiko building began in the 15th century, but between 1884 and 1894 the palace was rebuilt according to the design of the Roman architect Francesco Azzurri.

In addition to the General Council, the Captains-Regents, the Congress of State, the Supreme Court of the Republic and other authorities, sit in the Palazzo Publico.

On the facade of the palace are the coats of arms of all the castles of San Marino. On the left above the facade is a clock tower and figures of St. Marina, who is considered the founder of the oldest republic in Europe, St. Agathia and the lion.

The square in front of the palace bears the name of Liberty, in the center of it is the snow-white Statue of Liberty, donated to the republic in 1876 by Countess Otilia Geyrot Wagener.

Prepared by Elena KVASNIKOVA
Photo by Elena KVASNIKOVA, Daria ARTAMONOVA and from open sources

I would venture to be considered an ignoramus in a bohemian get-together, but I like monumental architecture. I love the scale of Ancient Rome with its majestic palaces and avenues, I am impressed by the Great Wall of China, I like the Moscow Stalinka towers, I like the Burj Dubai skyscraper in the Emirates. The unique Parliament of Romania, better known as the "Ceausescu Palace", is no exception. Meanwhile, this giant monster of engineering science is to this day the largest building in Europe and the second in the world, after the American Pentagon. And let them say that the last communist leader of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, demolished half of old Bucharest in the name of building his palace. What happened cannot be changed, whether we want it or not. Therefore, I propose to take a walk through one of the world's brightest masterpieces of monumental architecture.

A few technical details

Building size 240 x 270 meters, height 86 meters, 12 floors (plus 6 floors underground), 1100 rooms. In addition, during the construction, 3500 tons of crystal for chandeliers, 700 thousand tons of steel, 900 thousand cubic meters of wood, 200 thousand square meters of carpets were used. Impressive? Romania, bent over from poverty, worked for this palace for its beloved leader, who was shot without batting an eye in December 1989 after a fleeting military tribunal. An excellent documentary film tells very vividly about the horror that was happening in the country during the construction of the palace and about the last days of Ceausescu. Thanks for the link last_ant -

I will say more. During the construction of the Palace and the accompanying Oniri Avenue, 22 churches, 6 synagogues and 30 thousand buildings of the 18-19 centuries, which were the pearl of Bucharest, were demolished. Check out a selection of photos old Bucharest 90% of what is there is no longer there today. It is no coincidence that this city was once called the "Paris of Eastern Europe".

The construction of this complex began in 1983 and was originally designed as the Parliament of the Socialist Republic of Romania. But soon Ceausescu made key amendments to the initial draft, as a result of which the future parliament turned into the personal residence of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife. By December 1989, when a popular uprising began after the shooting of demonstrators in Timishorara, the building was 90% complete. But the Ceausescu couple did not have time to move into it. They were overthrown and executed literally a month before the formal delivery of the palace on a turnkey basis.

Currently, several ministries and departments function in the building at once: the Parliament, the National Senate, and in addition a number of interesting museums. You can read more about this building on Wikipedia, on the website of the Parliament, or on the city website Bucharest Life.

Below I propose to see how the Ceausescu Palace looks on the map from Google Earth -

In theory, a visit to the palace is not free, yet the building is also the Romanian parliament with the accompanying security of such a place. Tourists can visit the building (more precisely, some of its internal parts) from its northern entrance, bypassing security, where you will pass through a metal detector. All tours of the building are exclusively guided tours. You wait for a group of people to fill up (usually you have to wait half an hour at most) and for 45 minutes you will be taken through the inner chambers of this double Versailles. Tickets are not cheap: entrance 10 euros, photographing another 10 euros. Frankly, I regretted such a large sum for the camera and just saw everything with my own eyes. Impressive. Reminds the Kremlin, where the President of the Russian Federation receives important guests. I will correct right away that Medvedev did not receive me, I only saw on TV.

By the way, along the way, I discovered another "loophole" how to get into the building without a tour and see some of the interior rooms absolutely free. Go from the southern entrance, this is if you stand facing the palace and with your back to Oniri Avenue - to the left and up. The policeman will ask you where you are going. Say that to an exhibition of postmodernism (the policeman still won't understand you, but it doesn't matter, it's just that part of the building is rented by architects and periodically held exhibitions there), and he will let you through. Go straight, then right, where the glass elevators are. This is the "exhibition". VOKHR will ask where you are, tell me what is to the exhibition. He will let you in, as he let me in. Take the elevator up, and there will not be a single living soul - you can get out onto the roof and take pictures from there. Just look so that the police don't notice you - there will be trouble.

As mentioned above, the Ceausescu Palace is only part of a global project to rebuild Bucharest, initiated by Nicolae Ceausescu. From the palace to the east stretches the impressive Oniri Avenue, however, I will tell you about Bucharest as such in a separate report. For now, just appreciate the magnitude of what has been accomplished -

After three days spent in the Romanian capital, I decided to drive to neighboring Bulgaria, to the Danube town of Ruse, for a day, where I intended to see a museum of old steam locomotives. Read about what came of it.

- the world's largest civil administration building, the largest parliament building (with an area of ​​350 thousand square meters and a volume of 2,550 thousand square meters), as well as the heaviest building in the world.

For many years, the Ceausescu Palace was the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. Initially, the palace was called "House of the People", but in the post-communist era, its name was changed to "Palace of Parliament". But the locals still call him by his former name.

The dimensions of the Ceausescu Palace are impressive: 270 by 240 meters. Height - 86 meters. The underground part of the palace is 92 meters high. In total, the palace has 12 floors, 1100 rooms. Four underground levels have already been completed and in use, and four more levels are in various stages of completion.

The construction of this monumental structure was spent on about 1,000,000 square meters. meters, brought from Ruskitsa, 3500 tons of crystal (1409 mirrors and ceiling lamps, 480 chandeliers), 700,000 tons of bronze and steel for windows, doors, capitals and chandeliers. For the creation of luxurious floors and wall decoration, 900,000 square meters were spent. wood and wall panels (oak, hazel, cherry, maple, elm). The floors of the castle are covered with carpets of various sizes, their total area is 200,000 square meters. meters! Even machines were specially brought to the Ceausescu Palace to make giant carpets right on the spot.

The building of the palace does not lend itself to a clear classification, because it combines elements of several architectural styles.

Ceausescu Palace is located on. The construction of the palace began in 1984 by order.

The building was built as the headquarters of the main state institutions. The palace was completely built from materials of Romanian production, so during its construction, the demand for Romanian marble increased so much that even tombstones throughout the country began to be made from other materials.

The construction of the palace required the destruction of a fifth of the historic center of the city, which provoked noisy protests. Temples, ancient buildings were destroyed, people were indignant!

By the time of Ceausescu's execution in 1989, construction was almost complete.

Picturesque avenues surround the palace, and their scale is quite consistent with the scale of the palace. The Unirii Boulevard, flanked by white multi-storey buildings, leads to the foot of the Ceausescu Palace.

Before their construction, Ceausescu gave the order to build life-size models of all buildings made of wood along the new boulevard. In this way, he wanted to make sure that his plans were implemented on a proper scale.

If you decide to approach the Palace from the corner of National Unity and Freedom Boulevard, for the time being it hides its true scale.

As soon as you get to the central axis of the facade, you will be frozen in amazement! An immense building will appear before your eyes, which cannot be looked at completely, standing on the upper platform in front of the entrance! The facades of all buildings are faced with white Romanian marble that sparkles in the sun!

Now you, together with your guide, pass through a series of doors to the Ceausescu Palace!

The interiors of this one are incredibly refined and amaze with the richness of their decoration! To this day, the authorities are hiding the true amount that was spent on the construction of this amazing palace!

Imagine, at the time when this Palace was being built, Comrade Ceausescu managed to pay the external debt of Romania, build a metro in Bucharest, as well as a canal on the Danube. was on the verge of ruin!

This state suffered a terrible food shortage, especially protein foods.

People stood in lines for 8 months in order to buy chicken eggs, at least some meat (if that is how you can call ribs rolled into a tube on the tendons, issued by cards).

In the same years, abortion and contraception were banned Ceausescu. Scary statistics about how mothers raised their children - and how many women died in illegal abortions - are still on the lips of local residents.

"If you are cold, buy a second coat!" - Ceausescu said, and the "House of the People" kept growing and getting prettier.

In the castle you can find first-class marble carvings made in the national tradition, as well as Stephen the Great and Alexander Ion Cuza.

In general, the building of the Cişescu Palace is impressive, if you do not know what its construction cost the Romanian people!

Contacts:
Address: Strada Izvor 2-4, București, Romania
Phone: +40 21 316 0300

We bring to your attention material from the archive site - the text of the program of the Russian service of the Romanian foreign broadcasting from 13/12/2004 about the building that is the unofficial symbol of Bucharest - the Palace of Parliament. Recall that this cyclopean structure began to be built at the direction of the then Romanian communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu in 1984 as the residence of the president, government and parliament. The building is marked by the Guinness Book of Records as one of the largest and most expensive administrative buildings in the world. Clearing the site for the structure destroyed the elegant neighborhoods of central Bucharest, costing the city the loss of its unofficial title of “Paris of the Balkans”. At the time of the overthrow of Ceausescu in December 1989, the palace was not quite ready. (There were interior finishing works in a number of rooms). By the way, according to a number of Romanian publications, with the exception of the sandalwood, from which the ornaments in one of the conference rooms were made, all the material used for the construction of the building is of Romanian origin. The Palace of the Parliament still remains a symbol of modern Bucharest, despite the reconstruction and restoration in recent years of some of the historic buildings and quarters of the city. So far, Bucharest has failed to regain its pre-war charm. And now let's turn to the primary source - the Romanian essay.

Palace and District "Civic Center"

« The Palace of Parliament in Bucharest is the second largest and third largest building in the world. Until 1989 it was called the House of the Republic, after 1989 it was the House of the People, and since the mid-1990s, after the transfer of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate there, it received the name of the Palace of Parliament.

The building rises above the capital and is a real magnet for foreign tourists, who have nicknamed it "Ceausescu Palace".

On the one hand, such a nickname is justified, since the idea of ​​its construction and the choice of architectural and artistic style belong to the former leader of communist Romania.

But on the other hand, it is by no means justified by the suffering and deprivation, by the too dear price that the Romanian people paid for it.

The Palace of Parliament was conceived as the nucleus of the new urban center of Bucharest, which Ceausescu began to build in the mid-1980s. Communist propaganda called it the "Civic Center", since all central institutions, from the president's headquarters to the Academy of Sciences, were to move to the future palace and nearby buildings. (The "Civic Center" district became famous all over the world in 1989 during live TV broadcasts, after on one of its squares (now called "Revolution Square"), near the building of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, and began with a rally organized by Ceausescu in his support Romanian revolution. And the parliament building at first remained aloof from these events, it is located at some distance from this square. Note site).

The axis of the new city center was a wide boulevard with the characteristic name "Victory of Socialism". Today it bears the name "Bulevardul Uniriy" (Boulevard of Unification). It begins in a square, over which, on a hill in the center of a vast space, a palace rises.

The Civic Center itself was part of an extensive urban and rural systematization program that began in 1976-1980.

Ceausescu's new economic and ideological policy was based on the documents of the IX Congress of the Romanian Communist Party in 1974, incl. the RCP Program adopted there. In 1974, the Law on the Systematization of Settlements was issued, and in November 1977 the Department of Historical Monuments, which was engaged in the protection and preservation of historical sites and monuments, was abolished. The devastating 1977 earthquake, which affected many buildings in Bucharest, also served as a pretext for the start of the massive demolition of buildings in the old, historic quarters of the capital.

The dictator Nicolae Ceausescu conceived the Civic Center as a symbol of his power, deciding to leave a mark not only in the history of Romania, but also in the architecture of the capital. The "Civic Center" was characterized by the width of the "Victory of Socialism" boulevard unusual for Bucharest, large open spaces and huge buildings. Not only the palace, standing on an artificial hill, is impressive in size, but also the administrative and residential buildings surrounding it. In style, the Palace of Parliament is a classic example of the architecture of communist totalitarianism, according to the historian Adrian Mazhuru, an expert on the history of the city of Bucharest:

“The House of the People is not only one of the symbolic monuments of the era of Nicolae Ceausescu. This is a typical example of the communist worldview. Marxist-Leninist teaching spoke of the transformation of the world. Marx himself wrote in his Theses on Feuerbach: “Philosophers confined themselves to explaining the world. However, it is more important to change it ”. Nicolae Ceausescu, a dogmatic communist, unswervingly followed the teachings of the fathers of communism, who proclaimed the unlimited power of man over nature. He was not only their faithful follower, but also a prisoner of the world in which the ideologists of communism lived. The imprint he left on the architecture of today's Bucharest refers us to the utopian beginnings of communism and gives a ruthless idea of ​​what the future could be under communism. "

The construction of the palace began on June 25, 1984 and only until 1989 cost the Romanians about three billion lei and several hundred lives. Military builders and conscripts worked at the gigantic construction site. 480 thousand cubic meters of concrete and 42 thousand tons of rolled steel were used. The building was located on the former Arsenal Hill, in the Uranus quarter. For this, the picturesque corner of old Bucharest and the historical and architectural monuments located here were razed to the ground. Here are a few more figures that characterize this palace, included in the Guinness Book of Records, in the "administrative buildings" section. Its height from the base of the foundation to the top is 178 m, of which 92 m - underground and 86 m - on the surface. The area occupied by the building is 330 thousand sq. M. (second place after the Pentagon). Volume - 2.5 million cubic meters (third place in the world after the American space center at Cape Canaveral in Florida and the Quetzalcoatl pyramid in Mexico, but before the largest Egyptian pyramid of Cheops). The main facade of the palace is 270 m long, the lateral side is 245 m. The palace has two courtyards. The eleven-story building is shaped like a three-stage flat-topped pyramid. The building houses dozens of halls for receptions, meetings, negotiations, offices, a large conference room of the Chamber of Deputies, office premises, and restaurants. Since the 90s, the largest in Romania Center for International Conferences has been operating in the Palace of Parliament, where numerous congresses, conferences, seminars are held every month. The Museum of Contemporary Art was recently opened in the Palace of Parliament.

The construction and interior decoration of the palace was completed in general in the 90s, after the overthrow of Ceausescu, although the work is not 100% completed even now. Those who see the palace for the first time are surprised not only by its enormous size, but also by its strange eclectic style. Adrian Mazhuru tells about the symbolism of the building:

"Ceausescu's plans to create a new capital date back to the mid-70s. Then a strategy was developed for a new Romania, a new capital, in which the" Civic Center "was to become the central axis of Ceausescu's power. the viewer's consciousness.Although it properly stands out against the background of a huge square, the palace building oppresses the surrounding landscape, suppresses it.It is easy to establish the psychological image of the regime under which such an idea arose: building a dominant power, oppressing the citizen instead of giving him a sense of security , to symbolize the will of the people ”.

In the early 1980s, Bucharest was constantly shrouded in a cloud of dust, which arose due to the destruction of old quarters and the construction of the "Civic Center". Now, when the dust has cleared, a strange building in the center of the city and photographs that remind of forever lost monuments and houses remain in the memory ”.

This material is based on the text of the broadcast of the Russian service of the Romanian foreign broadcasting "Radio Romania International" from 13/12/2004 from the archive site;

Compilation and notes site