The Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului) is the heaviest administrative building on the planet. This giant is also considered the largest administrative building in Europe, as well as the largest parliament building on the planet. For comparison, it can be noted that this structure is 2% larger than the volume of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
The building is really huge, because the total area of the Palace is 350,000 m2, and its volume is 2,550,000 m3.
A team of 700 architects worked on the building project. And before the construction in the old part of the city, work began on the eviction of citizens and the demolition of residential buildings and architectural monuments. A total of 40,000 people were resettled from this part of the city. A hill was chosen for construction, and its top was cut to level the surface.
The construction of the huge palace began in 1984 under Nicolae Ceausescu. By the way, construction continues to this day, as interior decoration is still ongoing. It was originally thought that the building would be commissioned in 1986-1987.
In different periods of time, from 20,000 to 100,000 people worked on the construction of the Palace.
Some sources indicate that due to its enormous weight, the building shrinks by 6 mm per year.
Finishing materials
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The building was built almost entirely from Romanian materials. The decoration of the palace took 3,500 tons of crystal, 900,000 m³ of timber, 1,000,000 m³ of marble, 200,000 m² of carpets, and 700,000 tons of steel and bronze were spent on decorative items. It is noteworthy that all carpets are solid. For this, the looms were assembled inside the palace, and the carpets were already woven in place. But the doors, which were later installed in the hall of Nikolae Bellescu, were received as a gift from the Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Palace chandeliers
The crystal chandeliers of the palace were made at the Vitrometan Media glass factory. The production of 480 chandeliers took two years.
Nuclear bunker under the building
The palace has 12 aboveground and 8 underground floors.
The two lower floors of the building are a nuclear bunker capable of withstanding a direct hit from an atomic bomb. The bunker was designed at the request of Ceausescu, who feared war with nuclear weapons.
Palace in 1984 and in 2019
Center of Bucharest, 1984
Center of Bucharest, 2019
Detailed view of the Palace of Parliament taken from space.
The Palace of Parliament is also considered the most expensive administrative building on Earth. In 1989, construction costs were estimated at US $ 1.75 billion, and in 2006 the cost of construction has already exceeded US $ 3.5 billion.