The Palace of the Parliament (Romanian: Palatul Parlamentului) is the seat of the Parliament of Romania. Located on Dealul Arsenalului in central Bucharest, it is the largest administrative building in the world. The Chamber of Deputies is the lower house in Romania’s bicameral parliament. It has 329 seats to which deputies are elected by direct popular vote in single-member electoral districts using mixed member proportional representation.
The building of the Palace is located in the central part of Bucharest (in Sector 5), on the place that today is called Dealul Arsenalului, framed by Izvor Street to the west and northwest, United Nations Avenue to the north, Liberty Avenue to the east and Calea 13 Septembrie to the south.
Starting with 1993, the Art Collection of the Chamber of Deputies increased from 76 to over 4000 works of plastic and decorative art.
Works of the Art Collection of the Palace of Parliament – Chamber of Deputies
The Palace of Parliament building has a surface of 365.000 sqm and holds the 1st position in the Guinness World Records for the largest administrative building (for civil use), and the 3rd place worldwide from the volume point of view of; it is the heaviest and most expensive building in the world.
The Palace of Parliament building was built with construction materials produced in Romania: 1,000,000 cubic metres of marble, 550,000 tons of cement, 700,000 tons of steel, 2,000,000 tons of sand, 900,000 cubic metres rich wood, 3,500 tons of crystal, 200,000 cubic metres of glass, 2,800 chandeliers, 220,000 sqm carpets.
The building was constructed almost entirely of materials of Romanian origin. The only exceptions are the doors of Nicolae Bălcescu Hall. These were received by Ceaușescu as a gift from his friend Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire.
Among them: 3,500 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 m3 of wood (over 95% domestic) for parquet and wainscotting, including walnut, oak, sweet cherry, elm, sycamore maple; 200,000 m2 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.
A colossal parliament building known for its ornate interior composed of 23 sections, it houses the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, three museums and an international conference center. The National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Communist Totalitarianism (established in 2015) and the Museum of the Palace are hosted inside the Palace. Though named the House of the Republic (Romanian: Casa Republicii), after the Romanian Revolution in 1989 it became widely known as the People’s House (Romanian: Casa Poporului). Due to its impressive endowments, conferences, symposiums and other events are organised by state institutions and international bodies, but even so about 70% of the building is empty.
In 1990, Australian business 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 ($3.4 billion), making it the most expensive administrative building in the world. The cost of heating and electric lighting alone exceeds $6 million per year, as much as a medium-sized city.