Geographical

CEAUŞESCU’S URBAN VISION

-

Văcăreşti isn’t the only area of Bucharest that was radically altered under communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. During the early 1980s, Ceauşescu began his comprehens­ive reimaginin­g of the city centre, said to have been inspired by a visit to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, and the style of city planning he saw there, complete with vast boulevards and elaborate buildings. At the heart of this was the towering Palace of the People, which was set to become home to Ceauşescu and his party apparatus.

In order to build the new civic centre, an estimated 9,000 houses in central Bucharest were destroyed and more than 30,000 residents forced from their homes. Churches and other cultural and historical sites were also torn down, with little thought to heritage. After the 1989 revolution, the unfinished Palace of the People, still considered the second-largest administra­tive building in the world behind the Pentagon, would remain empty for years, until it was finally completed. It now houses the country’s parliament.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom