Romania and the Casa Poporuluii: Past and Future Identities
Romania and the Casa Poporuluii: Past and Future Identities
Sitting prominently on the top of a small hill, at the end of the Bulevardul Unirii (Unity Boulevard), in central Bucharest, Romania, lays one of man’s great architectural achievements, Casa Poporului (House of the People). Casa Poporului is the second largest administrative building in the world, behind the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Nae,Turnock, p 207). With over 1,000 rooms, and made almost entirely of Romanian resources, such as Romanian White Travertine and hand carved walnut and cherry paneling, the Casa Poporului is naturally a major tourist attraction (Vachon, p 59). Atop the central hill, looking like a giant concrete layer cake, with 20 floors taking up nearly 4,000,000 sq ft, author Duncan Light compares this building to “The Grand Canyon, The Eiffel Tower and The Millenium Dome” just by its sheer “visual size and physical presence”(Light, pp 1062-1063). The Casa Poporului was built by one of the world’s most infamous communist dictators, Nicolae Ceaucescu. Ceaucescu utilized Romania’s natural resources, its land and its people to build the Casa Poporului, and at the same time was in the midst of starving and brutalizing the population (Pacepa, pp 375-376). However, behind the grand monstrosity, glory and scandal of such a building lies the history and memories it possesses. After Ceaucescu’s death in 1989, Romania has struggled to pull itself out of the deep darkness that was socialism.
In Casa Poporului, Romania has been given an opportunity to provide a destination for tourists which provides a sense of pride and economic benefit, as well as a historically important relic to the Communist government that devastated the country for more than 25 years. Nicolae Ceaucescu became ruler in 1968 and immediately set out to change the look and feel of Bucharest. Ceaucescu was an admirer of other prominent world socialist leaders, whose ruling style was at the very least
Sitting prominently on the top of a small hill, at the end of the Bulevardul Unirii (Unity Boulevard), in central Bucharest, Romania, lays one of man’s great architectural achievements, Casa Poporului (House of the People). Casa Poporului is the second largest administrative building in the world, behind the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. (Nae,Turnock, p 207). With over 1,000 rooms, and made almost entirely of Romanian resources, such as Romanian White Travertine and hand carved walnut and cherry paneling, the Casa Poporului is naturally a major tourist attraction (Vachon, p 59). Atop the central hill, looking like a giant concrete layer cake, with 20 floors taking up nearly 4,000,000 sq ft, author Duncan Light compares this building to “The Grand Canyon, The Eiffel Tower and The Millenium Dome” just by its sheer “visual size and physical presence”(Light, pp 1062-1063). The Casa Poporului was built by one of the world’s most infamous communist dictators, Nicolae Ceaucescu. Ceaucescu utilized Romania’s natural resources, its land and its people to build the Casa Poporului, and at the same time was in the midst of starving and brutalizing the population (Pacepa, pp 375-376). However, behind the grand monstrosity, glory and scandal of such a building lies the history and memories it possesses. After Ceaucescu’s death in 1989, Romania has struggled to pull itself out of the deep darkness that was socialism.
In Casa Poporului, Romania has been given an opportunity to provide a destination for tourists which provides a sense of pride and economic benefit, as well as a historically important relic to the Communist government that devastated the country for more than 25 years. Nicolae Ceaucescu became ruler in 1968 and immediately set out to change the look and feel of Bucharest. Ceaucescu was an admirer of other prominent world socialist leaders, whose ruling style was at the very least
Cited: Daniala, Alina. Personal Interview. Resident of Bucharest, Romania 1978-1999. January 25, 2012. Danta, Darrick. “Ceaucescu’s Bucharest.” Geographical Review. Vol. 83. No. 2. April, 1993. American Geographical Society. Pp. 170-182. Print. Light, Duncan. “Facing the Future: Tourism and IdentityBuilding in Post-Socialist Romania.” Political Geography. 2001. Pergamom. Pp 1053-1074. Light, Duncan, Young, Craig. “Place, National Identity and Post Socialist Transformations: An Introduction.” Politcal Geography. 2001. Pergamom. Pp 941-955 Light, Duncan, Young, Craig Nae, Mariana. Turnock, David. “The New Bucharest: Two Decades of Restructuring.” Cities. Vol. 28. 2011. Elsevier. Pp. 206-219. Pacepa, Ion Mihai. “Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceaucescus’ Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption.” Regnery Gateway. 1987. Pp 219-221, 375-376. Stoler, Ann. “Race and the Education of Desire: Bourgeois Bodies and Racial Selves”. Durham & London: Duke University Press. 1995. Pp 98-136.