The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest: History, facts and tours

Last Updated on July 1, 2025 by George Pavlopoulos

I will never forget the odor when I entered the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. To this day, I still can’t decide whether it was just bad air or if someone failed to boil the cabbage properly. Somehow, this smell inside the Palace of the Parliament can still trigger a set of impressions from my visit.

It was actually this building that made me want to visit Bucharest. Therefore, taking a tour through the Palace was a high priority when I visited Romania’s capital.

The so-called Casa Poporului, or People’s House, is an impressive building, and numerous records are associated with it. In this article, I will present my impressions of the tour, including a wealth of facts, photos, and a video. If you’d like to book a tour, please check the section at the bottom of this post, where I link to the best tours of the Palace of the Parliament.

So, let’s start.

*Some of the links are affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

An introduction to the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest

The Palace of the Parliament is the heaviest building in the world. It actually weighs 4,098,500,000 kilos, and it is supposedly sinking a few millimeters per year. It is located in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, and its construction lasted 13 years, spanning from 1984 to 1997.

The idea of constructing such a massive building originated with Nicolae Ceaușescu, the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party. Ceaușescu was executed in December 1989 during the Romanian Revolution, which was an era of political turmoil for the country. That said, Ceaușescu never saw the building he envisioned.

The architect who supervised the construction of the Parliamentary Palace was Anca Petrescu. She wasn’t, of course, alone in this task. She actually had 700 architects with her. The number of workers is equally impressive, with more than 21,000 people working on the project.

Nicolae Ceaușescu sought to demonstrate that he could construct it using Romanian materials and local labor exclusively. It was a house for the people, after all. Those 21,000 workers worked in three shifts, 24 hours per day. That said, for these 13 years, people were working on the project non-stop.

Today, the building houses the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the two chambers of the Romanian Parliament. In addition, several museums are housed in the building, among them the Museum of Contemporary Art of Romania. However, these things occupy only a tiny percentage of its use.

The Palace of the Parliament has more than 1,000 rooms. There are also offices operating in the building, with a total of 440. The Palace itself occupies an area of 365,000 square meters.

Also known as the House of the Republic, Ceaușescu’s dream building is the world’s largest civilian administrative building. It’s also the second-largest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon.

In the early 1990s, Rupert Murdoch attempted to acquire it for $ 3 billion. However, the Romanian State didn’t accept his offer. To this day, the Palace of Parliament remains the most expensive administrative building in the world.

Taking a tour of the Palace of the Parliament

Everyone can visit the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. However, walking through its interior is only possible with a guide. You can either sign up for a tour in the Palace directly from the website of the Parliamentary Palace or find a tour online.

The day I visited the Palace, I was fortunate enough to arrive on time for an English-guided tour. However, as I figured out, not every tour is in English. Therefore, please verify that the tour you’re about to take is in English.

Alternatively, you can pre-book an English-speaking tour online. There are actually a few certified guides offering them. You can book a tour here and also here. Please arrive fifteen minutes in advance, as it’s obligatory to go through a security check. Also, bring your passport with you; otherwise, you won’t be allowed to enter.

It honestly feels like being in an airport. And the truth is that maybe you’re: you’re about to enter a different era.

What you’ll see in the Parliamentary Palace tour

As I wrote earlier, this is the biggest administrative building in the world. You will probably need days to tour all around it. Even the people working there haven’t seen the whole building. Visitors taking the Parliamentary Palace tour will have access to only 5% of the building.

You will walk approximately 1.5 kilometers and visit a couple of rooms. If you add the so-called Underground option to your tour, you’ll also see some rooms in the basement. For the latter addition, ensure you are physically fit enough to take the stairs. You should calculate approximately 300 stairs in total -but not in one strike, of course.

According to online information, the tour lasts about two hours. This is probably an exaggeration, though: the tour I took lasted one hour and fifteen minutes. I think that the two-hour timeframe allows for unforeseen delays or a group that might ask many questions.

How much does the tour of the Palace of the Parliament cost?

As of 2021, the tour costs 45 lei. That’s approximately 9-10 euros or dollars. If you book one of the various tours available online, expect to pay a few extra euros, as you’re also covering the guide’s costs. By booking online, you reserve a place, ensuring you won’t miss it. I’ll add the two best tours at the bottom of this post.

There is no extra charge for shooting photos. I double-checked that because I wanted to shoot both photos and videos. I had my Ricoh with me as well as the DJI Osmo Pocket. During the tour, I also saw people carrying large DSLRs.

That said, you don’t have to worry about your bulky DSLR. Have it with you because the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest is a great attraction, and you want to remember everything about it.

What to expect from the tour of the Parliamentary Palace

The guides are very knowledgeable and friendly. They will always ask you if you have any questions, and they are happy to answer them. They’ll also provide a lot of information, but it’ll be hard to remember every detail unless you write everything down or record it.

The only downside of the tour for me was that it felt pretty short. In one hour and fifteen minutes, it’s hard to digest what you see. Plus, if you (like me) would like to shoot photos and videos, you’ll have to sacrifice some of the info for finding and composing your images.

The day I took the tour, I counted approximately 35 people in the group. In some of the rooms, you won’t walk inside; therefore, everybody will stand in front of the door. That said, if you’d like to take some decent photos, you’ll have to wait until the group moves on to the next room. Of course, you’ll then lose some info.

Overall, I’m glad I had the opportunity to take the Parliamentary Palace tour. It offers a memorable experience because, in this building, modern history was written. Apart from that, the scale of the building itself is breathtaking.

If you are into history or simply interested in such things, this is one of the must-do things to do in Bucharest.

20 quick facts about the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest

Before presenting even more photos (and a video) from the tour, I’d like to add some quick facts about the building. Additionally, I obtained some information from our tour guide that may not be available elsewhere online.

1. You can access the Palace of the Parliament only from the side of Izvor Park. Since the building is enormous, don’t lose time searching for the entrance. Walk straight to Izvor Park and cross the street.
2. The English-speaking tours typically begin in the early afternoon. Mine began at 14:00, some of the online ones start at 15:00.
3. The tour will last approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. I think that the two hours that you’ll see online are probably an exaggeration.
4. You can take photos everywhere in the interior, but not at the security check. So keep your cameras and smartphones down.
5. Before starting the tour, you will be given a badge. You’ll need to return it when exiting, so if you’re into such memorabilia, be sure to take a photo.
6. Don’t forget your passport! Without it, you can’t enter the Palace of the Parliament. Remember that this is an administrative building, and people want to know who’s attending.
7. One of the paintings that you will see presents the back of a woman. This is supposedly Ceaușescu’s wife, Elena. Her back is naked, and rumor says the painter didn’t want to use her as a model because he found her ugly. Some other stories say that Elena was, in fact, running the State, not Nicolae.
8. When you are accessing the first floor, you will see huge curtains hanging in front of the windows. They are dark red in color, sixteen meters high, and they weigh 200 kilos each.
9. Sabin Balasa was one of the most famous artists in Romania. One of his most renowned paintings is located in the Palace of Parliament. Its name is “Apotheosis,” and it was released in 1984.
10. Along the long corridors of the Palace, you’ll also see traditional Romanian costumes. Some of them are more than 100 years old.
11. The Palace of the Parliament is not far from the city center. You can easily access it on foot.
12. There are days when international conferences and other events take place in the Palace. However, even on the busiest days, only 65% of the building is in use.
13. Nicolae Ceaușescu dreamed of having a theater in the building. Indeed, there is one, but it was never used in this manner. The reason? There was not enough reason backstage. By the way, the chandelier in that room weighs 3,000 kilos.
14. Since Romania has major earthquakes from time to time, there are visible damages on some walls.
15. The Palace also features eight underground levels, with the last one serving as a nuclear bunker. The walls are 1,5 meters thick, and radiation cannot penetrate them.
16. According to the official website, in the standard tour, you’ll visit the following rooms: The Press Gallery, The Gallery of Honour, The “Nicolae Iorga”  Hall, The “Nicolae Bălcescu” Hall, The “Nicolae Titulescu” Hall, The “Drepturilor Omului” Hall, The C4 Hall, The “I.I.C. Brătianu” Hall, The “Take Ionescu” Hall, The “Unirii” Hall, The “Al. I. Cuza” Hall, The Gallery of Honour, The Press Gallery, The “C. A. Rosetti” Hall. Taking the extended tour will also grant you access to some underground areas.
17. The tour, unfortunately, is not accessible to people with mobility disabilities.
18. Most of the materials were produced in Romania. Among them: 1,000,000 cubic meters of marble and 550,000 tons of cement.
19. The palace’s location was not an empty space before: 20 churches were destroyed, 8 were moved, and 10,000 homes had to be demolished. The State evicted more than 57,000 families.
20. Before the 1989 Revolution, the Parliament Palace was a symbol of Socialism. After 1989, it became a symbol of Democracy because it hosts several public institutions.

A short video from the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest

Here, you can view a 6-minute video from the Palace. I tried to include as much footage as possible. Moreover, I preferred not to add any music and let you hear what the tour guide had to say.

Opening times of the Palace of the Parliament

The Palace is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

More photos from the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest

So, in this section, you can see some extra pictures from the tour.

Book your tour for the Palace of the Parliament

Here you can find four selected tours for the Parliamentary Palace. All of them will book tickets for you; therefore, you won’t have to wait in line. There’s, of course, a guide to help you navigate through the building, and they will provide a lot of information. The tours are in English. You have the following options:

• Palace of the Parliament skip-the-line tour. This one is exactly what its name says: you’ll skip the line and take the tour without waiting in the queue. You can book this tour here.
• Parliamentary palace tour with Pickup. This option offers a plus: the tour guides will pick you up from your hotel in Bucharest. The Palace’s ticket is included in the price. Check this tour here.
• Private Bucharest full-day tour with entrance fees. That’s probably the most comprehensive Bucharest tour you’ll find online. The guides will pick you up from your accommodation, and you’ll have a full-day tour in the city. A visit to the Parliamentary Palace is, of course, part of the price. Book the full-day tour here.
• Communist tour. As its name suggests, this is a tour that explores the communist past of the city. It’s a private full-day tour around Bucharest, including, of course, the Palace of the Parliament. If you have a thing for modern history, then this one is for you. Book the Communist tour here.

So, that was it with my article about the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. Please let me know if you have already visited the Palace and your thoughts about it.

More about Bucharest: My travelogue from the capital of Romania

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