Palatul Parlamentului

The Palace of the Parliament is the seat of the Parliament of Romania. Located on Dealul Arsenalului in the national capital city of central Bucharest , it is the second largest administrative building in the world after The Pentagon. The Palace has a height of 84 metres , an area of 365,000 square metres and a volume of 2,550,000 cubic metres . In terms of weight, the Palace of the Parliament is also the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at around 4,098,500,000 kilograms .A colossal building, designed and supervised by chief architect Anca Petrescu , with a team of approximately 700 architects, constructed over a period of 13 years , it was built as a monument for a totalitarian kitsch style of architecture, in Totalitarian and modernist Neoclassical architectural forms and styles, with socialist realism in mind. The Palace was ordered by Nicolae Ceaușescu , the dictator of Communist Romania and the second of two longtime autocrats in power in the country since World War II, during a period in which the personality cult of political worship and adoration was in full force for him and his family. Known for its ornate interior composed of 23 sections, it houses the two houses of the Parliament of Romania: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies , along with three museums and an international conference center. The several museums hosted inside the Palace are the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Communist Totalitarianism and the Museum of the Palace. Though originally named the House of the Republic when under its long period of construction , after the Romanian Revolution in December 1989 it became widely known as The People's House . Due to its impressive endowments, events organized by state institutions and international bodies such as conferences, symposia, and others take place there, but even so about 70% of the building almost four decades later still remains empty.In 1990, Australian business and media magnate Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy the building for US $1 billion, but his bid was rejected. As of 2008, the Palace of the Parliament is valued at €3 billion euros , making it also the most expensive administrative building in the world. The cost of heating and electric use and lighting alone exceeds $6 million per year, as much as the total cost for powering a medium-sized city.
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