the centre piece of ceausescu's new romania was built on the rubble of bucharest's old quarter; 26 churches, and over 7000 homes were destroyed to make way for the civic centre known as the ceausima. at its centre looms the infamous palatul parliamentului, the palace of parliament, the third biggest building on earth after the pentagon and the tibetan potala. over 20,000 labourers and 600 architects toiled to build the palace to ceausescu's exacting standards. on one occasion they were required to rebuild a staircase three times because ceausescu himself was not satisfied,
writes one of the many websites recommending to visit this insane building of an insane dicatator. the palace, which still has several names (palace of the people, palace of the parliament, ceaucescu palace) occupies a huge part of the city, can be seen from almost everywhere and makes it very difficult to deny a time of humiliation for the majority of the romanians. the palace is there: impossible to be removed like memory would like to do with the time the monstuous building represents. furthermore, tourists love this place, althought its almost too big to take pictures with average foto equipment. it became one of the touristic hot spots of the romanian capital. and thus its representation seems to "secured" for the 21 century, too.

fast unauslöschlich ist es in die seele der stadt eingeschrieben, das architektonische symbol für unterdrückung, größenwahn und vollständiger isolation mehrer generationen von rumänen. es ist das auge des dictators, das noch immer wacht, mehr als fünfzehn jahre nach seiner ermordung. und die erinnerungen der betroffenen unterscheiden sich wohl deutlich von jenem wohligen schauer, den so manchen touristen/so manche touristin überkommt, wenn er/sie den seiteneingang des palastes benützt, um an einer führung teilzunehmen.