After the earthquake of 4 March 1977, Nicolae Ceaușescu started a reconstruction plan of Bucharest, and the People's House was the center of this project. For its construction a contest was organized, won by Anca Petrescu, appointed chief architect of the project. The actual construction began on 25 June 1984. The building was erected on the site of monasteries that were demolished and on the site of Uranus Hill that was leveled. 7 km2 in the old city center were demolished, and 40,000 people were relocated from this area. The works were carried out with forced labor of soldiers and so the cost was minimized. Between 20,000 and 100,000 people worked on the site, sometimes operating in three shifts. Thousands of people died at the People's House, some sources mention a figure of 3,000 people. In 1989 building costs were estimated at $1.75 billion, and in 2006 at €3 billion.
The Palace is the second-largest administrative building in the world, after The Pentagon in the United States. With a height of 84 m, an area of 365,000 m2 and having a volume of 2,550,000 m3, it is also the third-biggest building in the world, after the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan, Mexico. In terms of weight, the Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world.
A colossal parliament building known for its ornate interior composed of 23 sections, it houses the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, three museums and an international conference center. The National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Communist Totalitarianism (established in 2015), and the Museum of the Palace are hosted inside the Palace. Due to its impressive endowments, conferences, symposiums and other events are organised by state institutions and international bodies, but even so about 70% of the building is empty.

Tags:   Palatul Parlamentului bucharest building architecture socialist

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