Bucharest

Bucharest Information

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Bucharest holidays

Bucharest is not as spectacular as Prague or Budapest. One sixth of the city was razed to the ground in order to accommodate Ceausescu’s folly the ‘Palace of Parliament’ known as the ‘People’s Palace’. Built in 1984, the building is the world’s second largest in surface after the Pentagon and stands 85m metres high. The building has 3,100 rooms and galleries up to 150 metres long. This was extravagance on an enormous scale and epitomised the lunacy of the Ceausescu regime. A 45-minute tour of the Palace can be arranged.

There is much of interest to see in Bucharest and it is certainly worth a day or two’s sightseeing. The beauty of the city lies in its early 20th century neo-classical heritage when it was known as ‘Little Paris’. It was between 1900 and 1930 that Bucharest’s parks (very much a feature of the capital), buildings and gracious avenues were modelled on those of Paris.

Holidays In Bucharest

However, two earthquakes in 1940 and 1977, allied bombing during the Second World War and the revolution in 1989 destroyed much of the city’s beauty and Ceausescu’s ego did the rest. But, there are true gems to be found amongst the confused architecture that is today’s rapidly recovering city. There is no true centre to the city and life revolves around five squares, Romana and Victoriei to the north, Universitatii and Revolutiei in the centre and Unirii to the south.

The National Art Museum and National History museum are well worth a visit but by far the most interesting museum in Bucharest is the Romanian Peasant museum which beautifully summarises everything one will have seen while touring the country. In the basement you will find a wonderful section called Ciuma Instalatie Politica (The Plague of Political Paraphernalia) covering the communist years and how the regime indoctrinated and treated the peasant population. In the 1940’s and 1950’s there was a policy of exterminating the richer peasants and 80,000 were murdered. In total, the communists murdered over half a million Romanian intellectuals as well as peasants who owned small parcels of land.

Sinaia castle, which can be visited on the transfer between Bucharest airport and Brasov, is spectacularly situated and was built by King Carol I in Bavarian style between 1875 and 1883. Only 16 rooms of the 168 rooms can be visited today. The castle featured the first diesel powered central heating system in Europe, had one of the first lifts in the world and its own hydro-electric power supply.