Palace Of The Parliament, Bucharest
Twenty-three years after communism collapsed, the Palace of the Parliament has emerged as an unlikely pillar of Romania's nascent democracy.
The palace, so big it can be seen from space opened its doors in early 1990.
But over time the palace has become as much a magnet for glamorous events...
Brides pose in front of the yellow-stoned facade, while weddings, balls, movies and fashion shows and shoots take place inside. It's hosted celebrities – Michael Jackson moonwalk in front of the building after a press conference, Colombian pop star Shakira sang outside in the pouring rain, and Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke attending a ball there to raise money for disadvantaged children. Visiting politicians have included former U.S. President George Bush, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and in October, German chancellor Angela Merkel, who made a speech to 16 European prime ministers.
Construction on the grandiose project began in the early 1980s, designed the palace to house the government and Parliament after the devastating earthquake of 1977 where swaths of buildings crumbled in the capital and more than1,500 people died. A semi-literate son of a peasant, Ceausescu was nothing if not ambitious: He wanted the new building to withstand any earthquake and last 500 years.
Romanians, including thousands of soldiers, were enlisted to work around the clock on the construction. Today's tours sample only parts of the building and last just one to two hours, but it would take a day to visit all the rooms and almost an hour just to walk around the perimeter.
Petrescu, the chief architect, insists that Buckingham Palace and Versailles were her artistic inspirations, not North Korean architecture, even though Ceausescu sent architects on a visit to Pyongyang to study architecture there after he was inspired during a 1971 visit. She says it's neo-classic in in style, while others diplomatically call the style `'eclectic."
"This building ended up such big due to a technical reason,"
