Bucharest

Overview

The 500-year-old city of Bucharest, with a population of 2,100,000, was once touted as the "Small Paris". Bucharest today, like any big capital, is a bustling modern metropolis full of life and diversity. Touting a rich and full history, Bucharest offers attractive opportunities to enjoy and explore.

Much of Bucharest�s past can be seen along Calea Victoriei and Piata Victoriei and the streets leading from them. Some of the points of interest on Calea Victoriei are The National Museum of History, The Romanian Athenaeum and The Royal Palace known also as The National Art Museum, George Enescu Palace and The Museum of Art Collections.

Among the attractions is Parliament Palace listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, under �Administrative Buildings� as the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. In point of volume of the building, the Romanian Parliament Palace ranks third in the world. Ranking first is a Cape Canaveral rocket-assembly building and ranking second is Quetzacoatl�s pyramid in Cholula, Mexico.

At the demand of Ceausescu, the president and dictator of Romania between 1967-1989, work on Parliament Palace, initially named The House of The People, began on June 25 1984 on a land that had previously held one of the oldest and loveliest of the city�s neighborhood. Though the whole structure is the result of a tremendous national effort being designed and built entirely by Romanian specialists. After December 1989, the Palace became headquarters of several working commissions of the Romanian Parliament.

Of special interest for the Romanian ethnography is...more

History