A brief note about Bucharest

Parliament building in Bucharest

                         

 Bucharest is the largest city in and the capital of Romania, full of beautiful baroque buildings in desperate need of restoration and covered with graffiti on virtually every building in its downtown area.  Unlike the rest of Romania, which is extremely clean, there is trash on the streets and around vacant doorways.  But, it is a lively city where Romanians like to live.

enormous ballroom used once a year

We had very little time here, so visited the Parliament for a tour.  Ceaucescu built this enormous building in the 1980’s as a monument to himself and his wife, with a large balcony where the two of them could stand and wave and receive the cheers and accolades of the Romanian people.  Who actually didn’t want billions of dollars spent for such a building when they did not have running water, electricity, good roads, jobs or transportation.

Ceaucescu at least was a nationalist, whatever that means, who used only Romanian materials and artisans for the building.  The craftsmanship is beautiful.  There is a huge amount of meticulously carved plaster, beautifully carved wood, enormous chandeliers, marble “carpets”.  It is quite spectacular.  And also mostly unused because the spaces are too big and the need too small.

view from the unused balcony

Now, the Romanian Senate and House of Delegates meet in the Parliament building, but only in a small part of it.  The rest is used for an occasional meeting or exhibit or event.  The gigantic ballroom hosts the Vienna Ball once a year for charity.  Otherwise, it rarely sees any activity except for gawking tourists like us.  What a tragedy that so much money was spent for so little benefit.  The Ceaucescus were executed before the building was finished, so they never got to experience the drama of huge crowds cheering them on, feeding their limitless egos.  But, Michael Jackson did get to perform there and to enjoy the crowd filling the square below the balcony.