Palace of the Parliament

Take a moment to absorb what is in front of you. It measures 240 by 270 metres, rises 84 metres high, has eight underground levels and around 365,000 square metres of floor space. It is often described as the heaviest building in the world. Romanians first called it Casa Poporului, the House of the People; today it is the Palace of the Parliament.

1The earthquake and the dream

On 4 March 1977 an earthquake killed more than 1,500 people in Romania, most of them in Bucharest. Ceaușescu used it as a pretext to remake the centre to his own taste. It is often said that he had been impressed by the vast complexes he saw in Pyongyang in 1971. Work began on 25 June 1984 under a very young architect, Anca Petrescu, who led hundreds of architects. Almost everything was made from Romanian materials: marble, timber, crystal for hundreds of chandeliers.

2The price

To build it, the Uranus-Izvor district was razed: about seven square kilometres of the historic centre, with houses, churches, a monastery and a hospital. Some 40,000 people were rehoused. The building stands on Spirii Hill, where the Phanariot princes had built the New Court in 1775.

When Ceaușescu fell in 1989, it was unfinished. Today it houses the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, yet much of it is still empty. You can visit the interior: tours are usually guided, booked in advance and require ID, so check before you go.

3What to look for

• The rows of columns repeated storey after storey.
• The vista to the east, aligned with the great boulevard.
• The human scale: find someone next to the façade to compare.