Palace of the Parliament

Ceaușescu’s colossal palace, the world’s heaviest building, now home to Romania’s parliament.

It is 84 metres high, 240 metres long and 270 metres wide, with a floor area of about 365,000 square metres. It is often called the heaviest building in the world, at about 4.1 million tonnes, and one of the largest administrative buildings. Romania's parliament works there today, and it also houses a court, three museums and a conference centre.

A palace that cost a neighbourhood

After a big earthquake in 1977, Ceausescu used the damage as a reason to rebuild parts of old Bucharest in his own style. To make room, builders levelled Uranus Hill and destroyed the Uranus-Izvor neighbourhood. About seven square kilometres of the old city centre were demolished, and roughly 40,000 people had to move. The area had held monasteries, a hospital, the National Archives and about 37 old factories and workshops.

Building the giant

Anca Petrescu won a contest and became chief architect at the age of 28, leading a team of about 700 architects. Between 20,000 and 100,000 people worked on the site in three shifts, including soldiers. The number who died is disputed. The building cost was estimated at US$1.75 billion in 1989, and its value was put at 4 billion euros in 2020. In 1990 the businessman Rupert Murdoch tried to buy it for US$1 billion, but the offer was turned down.

Inside the giant

The building has about 1,100 rooms on 12 floors, plus eight underground levels with a nuclear bunker. Since 1994 it has been home to the Chamber of Deputies, and since 2004 also to the Senate. The National Museum of Contemporary Art opened in its west wing in 2004. Even so, about 70 percent of the building is still empty, and heating and electricity alone cost more than $6 million a year.

On the globe

The model shows the huge palace with its long columned front. Look at how wide it is compared with its height.