The People's House - Palace of Parliament

After the earthquake of 1977 Nicolae Ceauşescu ordered the "rebuilding" the city. Thus began the largest national competition for the rebuilding of Bucharest, a contest which lasted 4 years and was won by young arhirectă Anca Petrescu. It has coordinated a team made up of 200 architects and approximately 20,000 workers.

To be able to raise the imposing building was required demolition of more than 7 km ² of the old center of the capital. Among the buildings are demolished and monasteries Vacaresti, brâncovenesc Hospital, National Archives, the Republic Stadium, etc..

In the year 1983 began construction of the building and the foundation stone was placed at 25 June 1984. People for the building were used: 1,000,000 m³ marble, 5500 tons of cement, 7000 tons of steel, 20,000 tons of sand, 3500 tonnes of crystal, glass 200,000 m³, 2800 of Chandeliers, 220,000 meters of carpets, 3500 meters of skin.

Palace of Parliament, or House of the People, as the building was known before the revolution, is 270 m long, 245 m wide, 86 meters high and 92 m underground. The building has 12 levels in surface and underground yet 8, and has pursued an area of 330,000 hectares, thereby submitting the book Recordurilor on the Pentagon building after 2 and 3 in the world in terms of volume (2,550,000 m³). For comparison, it is good to know that the Parliament Palace exceed 2% of the volume pyramid keops.








The building has 1,100 rooms, of which 440 are in offices, 4 restaurants and 3 are libraries, has 2 underground parking and a concert hall.

The largest room in the palace room is Union Parliament. It was inaugurated on 22 December 1994 and was designed for large receptions that had taken place at the head of state. Carpet for this room was specially designed, containing items taken from room setting, has an area of 1100 sq meters and a weight of about 3 tons.




Hall of Human Rights has an area of 625 hectares and is fully paneled with oak different shades. Chandeliers made weighs around 2 tons and is the 2nd largest in the building.

Other rooms, as impressive are: Hall CA Rosetti, Tache Ionescu Hall, John Hall I.C. Brătianu, Room A.I Cuza, Nicolae Iorga Hall and Nicholas Hall Bălcescu.

I think though that words can not express grandoarea the palace. Worth watching!

Deva Fortress

Deva Fortress is located in the city of Deva, Hunedoara County, Romania, on top of a volcanic hill.

The first evidence of the medieval Deva Fortress dates back to the second half of the 13th century, in 1269, when Stephen V, King of Hungary and Duke of Transilvania, mentioned "the royal castle of Deva" in a privilege-grant for the Count Chyl of Kelling (Romanian: comitele Chyl din Câlnic).

From 1273 dates the first record about a military operation that involved The Fortress. Under its walls, the cumans are defeated by Petrus Chak (Latin: Magister Pertrus de genere Chak), who is rewarded for his victory by Ladislaus IV, King of Hungary. In his letter, Ladislaus IV mentioned the facts with the words: sub castro Dewa contra Cumanorum exercitur viriliter dimicavit.

At the end of the 13th century, The Deva Fortress is in the property of Ladislaus Kán, Voivode of Transylvania, who organised here a court besides the military garrison.

more pictures here

Voroneţ Monastery

Voroneţ is a monastery in Romania, located in the town of Gura Humorului, Moldavia. It is one of the famous painted monasteries from southern Bukovina, now in Suceava County. Between May and September 1488, Stephen III of Moldavia (known as "Stephen the Great") built the Voroneţ Monastery to commemorate the victory at Battle of Vaslui. Often known as the "Sistine Chapel of the East", the frescoes at Voroneţ feature an intense shade of blue known in Romania as "Voroneţ blue". "[T]he exterior walls — including a representation of the Last Judgment on the west wall — were painted in 1547 with a background of vivid cerulean blue. This blue is so vibrant that art historians refer to Voroneţ blue the same way they do Titian red

The katholikon (main church) of Saint George at Voroneţ Monastery is possibly the most famous church in Romania. It is known throughout the world for its exterior frescoes of bright and intense colours, and for the hundreds of well-preserved figures placed against the renowned azurite background. The age of the monastic site is not known. A legend tells us that Stephen the Great, in a moment of crisis during a war against the Ottoman Turks, came to Daniel the Hermit at his skete in Voroneţ and asked for advice. After he won the battle against the Turks, keeping his promise to the monk, the Prince built a new church, dedicated to Saint George, the "bringer of victory in battle". The commemorative inscription placed above the original entrance of the Church of Saint George, now in the exonarthex, shows that the church was built in 1488 in less than four months. It was built on a triconch plan (with three apses), with a chancel, a naos with its tower, and a pronaos. In 1547, the Metropolitan Bishop of Moldavia, Grigorie Roşca, added the exonarthex to the west end of the church.

The small windows, their rectangular frames of crossed rods and the receding pointed or shouldered arches of the interior doorframes are Gothic. The south and north doors of the exonarthex of 1547 have rectangular frames, which indicate a transition period from Gothic to Renaissance. But, above them, on each wall is a tall window with a flamboyant Gothic arch. The whole west façade is without any openings, which indicates that the intention of the Metropolitan Roşca was from the beginning to reserve it for frescoes.

On the north façade is still visible the original decoration of the church, the rows of ceramic enamelled discs in yellow, brown and green, decorated in relief. These include heraldic motifs, such as the rampant lion and the aurochs' head of the Moldavian coat of arms, and creatures inspired by Western European mediaeval literature, such as two-tailed mermaids. The tower is decorated with sixteen tall niches, in four of which are windows. A row of small niches encircles the tower above them. The fragmented roof probably follows the shape of the original roof, which doubtless was made with shingles.

The tomb of the monastery's first abbot, Saint Daniil the Hermit, is found at the monastery.

The church is one of the Painted churches of northern Moldavia listed in UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.

Romania my country Apuseni Mountains gallery

The Apuseni Mountains (Romanian: Munţii Apuseni, Hungarian: Erdélyi-szigethegység) is a mountain range in Transylvania, Romania, which belongs to the Western Carpathians, also called Occidentali in Romanian. Their name translates from Romanian as Mountains "of the sunset" i.e. "western". The highest peak is Cucurbăta Mare" Hungarian: Nagy-Bihar - 1849 metres, also called Bihor Peak. The Apuseni Mountains have about 400 caves.