The People's House

Today we did a guided tour of the Palace of the Parliament (aka House of the Republic aka The People's House), the seat of the Romanian Parliament. It is on Unity Boulevard, originally named Triumph of Socialism Boulevard.

It was ordered built by Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and built by displacing 50,000 citizens and demolishing their homes in the 1980's (no compensation was offered).

It is the heaviest building in the world, containing 1,100 rooms, 10 stories above ground, and 8 below, including a nuclear bunker under Ceausescu's former office. If you visited one room every thirty seconds it would take you 9 hours to visit them all.

After our visit we walked into Unity Plaza for lunch, then home on the underground. The underground system is efficient and reliable - and cheap, a single journey to anywhere on the network is $1.Читать далее