Sights · 30 of the best in Bucharest
The Palace of the Parliament
The back story
About The Palace of the Parliament
The Palace of the Parliament, on a hill south of the centre, is one of the largest and heaviest administrative buildings in the world. Built in the 1980s, it required the demolition of a large part of the historic district of Uranus, and it now houses Romania’s Parliament and a museum of contemporary art.
A colossal building
The Palace covers some 365,000 square metres of floor space, with more than a thousand rooms, and was built with Romanian materials: marble, wood, crystal and textiles.
Built in the 1980s
Construction began in 1984, after a large area of the old city, including churches, monasteries and homes, was cleared. Thousands of workers and hundreds of architects worked on it, led by the young architect Anca Petrescu.
The Palace has more than a thousand rooms.
Inside
Today it houses the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament, conference halls and the National Museum of Contemporary Art.
Our advice: book a guided tour in advance and bring your passport or ID card. Tours visit only a small part of the building but give a sense of its scale.
Why it's on our list
- A colossal building
- Built in the 1980s
- Inside
- Visiting
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The Palace of the Parliament before you go.