The Parliament Building/Palace started construction 40 years ago and was completer 20 years later. It is 12 stories tall and sits on one of seven hills in Bucharest. It took 700 architects, directed by a 30-year old lady, and 20,000 workers to create and decorate 11,000 rooms. It was built and financed by the communists who occupied the country at that time and was built to house government offices for all of Romania. They also built several ministry buildings and a residence apartment. Our tour covered less than 5% of the rooms in the Parliament.
Most of what we saw on the tour was for use by government dignitaries and ambassadors from other countries although some ballrooms are used by the public for dances and galas.
The auditoriums will seat 600 people and is used 2-3 time a week. The chandelier weighs 5 tons with 300 lights. It has an art decor design. The press gallery has 67 chandeliers with 9 meter high ceilings. Other rooms were French style, German style, Neo renaissance and others. One ballroom had glass ceilings, a window in one stairwell was 16 meters high and the curtain over it weighed 500 kilograms. All the rooms we saw were massive with tall ceilings, marble walls and numerous chandeliers. The estimated cost was $4 billion US dollars and it is considered to be the heaviest building in the world.
A nap was called for before we met some of our fellow travelers. We then had a cocktail in the hotel’s vault. This building was once a bank so the Vault has been transformed into a bar. Speaking of the hotel, it too has very tall ceilings and a luxurious lounge and dining area. The marble stairs to the second floor are elegant and surrounded by fresco paintings.
1 comment:
You guys look great. Which Amawaterways trip did you do?
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