Romanian: România, IPA: is a country in Southeastern Europe. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south. Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea. It is located roughly in the lower basin of the Danube and almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory.

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Romania is a parliamentary unitary state. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova) were occupied by USSR and Romania became a member of Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms that peaked with Romania joining the European Union.

Romania has been a member of the European Union since January 1, 2007, and has the ninth largest territory in the EU and with 22 million people it has the 7th largest population among the EU member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureºti ), the sixth largest city in the EU with almost 2 million people. In 2007, Sibiu, a large city in Transylvania, was chosen as European Capital of Culture. Romania joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie and of OSCE.

People’s House

Palace of the Parliament (Romanian: Palatul Parlamentului) in Bucharest, Romania is the world’s second largest administrative building, after The Pentagon. It was one of the most lavish and expensive buildings known to mankind. Its original name was the People’s House (Casa Poporului), but it was renamed (in the post-Communist era) first during the 1989 Revolution with the derogatory name of House of Ceauºescu and then as the Palace of the Parliament. However, to this day, most of the Romanians retain the old name and call it Casa Poporului.

Description&Construction

The structure combines elements and motifs from multiple sources, in an eclectic neoclassical architectural style.
It measures 270 m by 240 m, 86 m high, and 92 m under ground. It has 1,100 rooms and is 12 stories tall, with four additional underground levels currently available and in use, with another four in different stages of completion.
The building is constructed entirely of materials of Romanian origin. Estimates of the materials used include one million cubic meters of marble from Transylvania, most from Ruºchiþa; 3,500 metric tonnes of crystal - 480 chandeliers, 1,409 ceiling lights and mirrors were manufactured; 700,000 tonnes of steel and bronze for monumental doors and windows, chandeliers and capitals; 900,000 cubic meters of wood (over 95% domestic) for parquet and wainscotting, including walnut, oak, sweet cherry, elm, sycamore maple; 200,000 square meters of woolen carpets of various dimensions (machines had to be moved inside the building to weave some of the larger carpets); velvet and brocade curtains adorned with embroideries and passementeries in silver and gold.

It is the second largest administrative building in the world by surface area of its floors (with a floor area of 350,000 m2 / 3.76 million ft2), just behind the Pentagon in Washington, D.C It is 10% larger by volume than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Constructing the Palace and Centrul Civic required demolishing much of Bucharest’s historic districts, including two neighborhoods with 19 Orthodox Christian churches, 6 synagogues and Jewish temples, 3 Protestant churches (plus eight relocated churches), and 30,000 homes.
Built on the site of a hill variously known as Spirii Hill, Uranus Hill, or Arsenal Hill, which was largely razed for the project, the building anchors the west end of Unirii Boulevard and Centrul Civic. Construction began in 1983; the cornerstone was laid on June 25, 1984. The building was originally known mainly as the House of the People (Casa Poporului), and sometimes as House of the Republic (Casa Republicii), and was intended to serve as headquarters for all the major state institutions. However, the project was just nearing completion at the time of Nicolae Ceauşescu’s 1989 overthrow and execution. During the regime change, its leaders referred to the building as the House of Ceauşescu, using it as an example of the excessive luxury in which Ceauşescu would have been living, a stark contrast to the squalor and poverty endured by many people living in the surrounding neighbourhoods.
Since 1997, the building has housed Romania’s Chamber of Deputies, which had previously been housed in the Palace of the Patriarchy; the Romanian Senate joined them there in 2005, having previously been housed in the former Communist Party Central Committee building. The Palace also contains a massive array of miscellaneous conference halls, salons, etc., used for a wide variety of other purposes.

In 2002, Costa Gavras shot scenes of Amen. in the Palace to represent the Vatican palaces.
In 2003-2004 a glass annex was built, alongside external elevators. This was done to facilitate access to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (MNAC) opened in 2004 inside the west wing of the Palace of the Parliament, and to the Museum and Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism, also opened in 2004.
The cafeteria for use of the legislators has been refurbished