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Romania’s Casa Poporului - ironically, the ‘Palace of the People’ – is the third largest building in the world, and the most expensively built of its kind. Conceived and built during Ceausescu’s regime, it arrived like a monstrous neoclassically-carved glacier: approximately a fifth of the city was razed to the ground to make way for it, including huge swathes of historical houses, synagogues and churches.

It is constructed from solely Romanian materials: the walls are made of Transylvanian marble, 350 tonnes of crystal are suspended from the chandeliers, and nearly a million cubic metres of precious woods decorate the interior.

It was never entirely completed, and developments continue even today, but it already contains museums, restaurants, lecture halls and other public spaces as well as designated spaces for the Romanian Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

Quite frankly, it’s worth a look just for the ‘wow factor’.

Written by  larapiegeler.

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