Bucharest Private Tour, Parliament Palace, Ceausescu House Visit
Description
1. The Palace of the Parliament is one of the heaviest buildings in the world, weighing about 4,098,500,000 kilograms (9.04 billion pounds; 4.10 million tones), also being the second largest administrative building in the world. (The Great Pyramid of Giza at about 5.75 million tons is about 40% heavier.) The building was designed and supervised by chief architect Anca Petrescu, with a team of approximately 700 architects, and constructed over a period of 13 years (1984–97) in modernist Neoclassical architectural forms and styles, with socialist realism in mind. 2.We want our visitors to see how Ceauşescu lived, not only as an internationally known head of state, but as a man in his own private life – the hobbies that he had, what his routine around the privacy of his home was, how he studied or what art collections he had in his house. The “Ceauşescu Mansion” was for a quarter of a century (1965-1989) the private residence of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu and of their children.
Tour Options
Itinerary
The Palace of the Parliament is one of the heaviest buildings in the world, weighing about 4,098,500,000 kilograms (9.04 billion pounds; 4.10 million tones), also being the second largest administrative building in the world. (The Great Pyramid of Giza at about 5.75 million tons is about 40% heavier.) The building was designed and supervised by chief architect Anca Petrescu, with a team of approximately 700 architects, and constructed over a period of 13 years (1984–97) in modernist Neoclassical architectural forms and styles, with socialist realism in mind. The Palace was ordered by Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989), the president of Communist Romania and the second of two long-ruling heads of state in the country since World War II, during a period in which the personality cult of political worship and adoration increased considerably for him and his family.
The “Ceauşescu Mansion” was for a quarter of a century (1965-1989) the private residence of Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu and of their children, Nicu, Zoia, and Valentin. Built in the mid-1960s and known at the time as the “Spring Palace”, the mansion was enlarged between 1970 and 1972. The preferred choice for the design of the Ceauşescu family’s residence was Aron Grimberg-Solari (born 1928). The architecture of the palace is complemented by landscaping conceived by the architect Robert Woll (who was also the main furniture designer for the house) and the landscape engineer Teodosiu. The spatial qualities and balanced volumes of the Ceaușescu Mansion are striking, as is its luxurious and comfortable interior, the work of the architects Robert Woll and Agrippa Popescu.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Travelers can send us pick up and drop of location
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
Reviews(29)
We had an amazing experience with this combination of 2 tours. Catalin picked us up directly from our hotel and took us to Parliament Palace. On our way, he explained lot of insight information about the palace, the city itself and all this kind of information about Bucharest that someone visiting this beautiful city as a tourist, would love to hear. He even found a perfect spot for photos, stopped the car and took a photo of us. Everything was very well prepared time-wise. Then we had the tour, in a very small private group of 7 people in total. The tour was amazing and we entered all the rooms that can be visited in a VIP manner. After the palace of parliament tour. Catalin picked us up again and took us to Ceausescu House, where another tour was scheduled for us, to join an English tour of the house. On our way from one place to the other, Catalin continued providing interesting information about the city, in a very engaging and friendly manner. He waited for us for the tour to finish (well worth it, please include it in your visit) and then he went the extra mile. We wanted to continue our walk in a nearby park, rather than being transferred to the hotel again. Catalin gladly accepted this request and not only he left us in the spot to start our walk in the Herastrau park, but he explained with very clear instructions the best way to walk through the park, so that we could see the best part of it and then easily get off the park in a convenient place to take the Metro and continue our walk. So, Kudos and million thanks to Catalin, for making this experience unforgettable. I can only highly recommend this tour, ask for Catalin and you will remember me!
Our tour guide Catalin told us an incredible number of interesting details about Ceaucescu. He was funny and very informative while doing so! And his service was incredible—being picked up by car directly from the red carpet in front of the huge parliament building felt very statesmanlike ;) We can recommend visiting the parliament and residential building from the inside and experiencing the contrast between megalomaniacal luxury and communist everyday life to everyone!!!
Fantastic experience, to get to know two of the most emblematic places in Bucharest. The guide demonstrated knowledge and experience and was very kind at all times. The car with AC was great news for a warm summer day. Highly recommended.
Radu was friendly and personable. It was an enjoyable half day tour of the Palace of the Parliament and the Ceaucescu home.
We signed up for a private guided tour of the Parliament Palace and the Ceausescu home and felt very fortunate to have Catalin as our driver and guide. He really made the trip meaningful with his deep knowledge and personal experience from growing up in Bucharest. The Parliament Palace: impressive, and somewhat depressing to see how this massive building is underused. You learn a lot just by walking through the halls and visiting about 4 of the rooms. The Ceausescu home is quite fascinating. Our tour was made much more informative through the information Catalin shared before and after the house tour. Catalin took care of all the details and ushered us though the experiences with ease. He really knows what he’s doing. My husband and I credit him with the best tour we’ve had in a long time.
The tour was really interesting. Our guide was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of first hand accounts about the revolution.
Thank you so much for the great feedback! All the best from Romania!
Excellent experience. Tour of the House of Chausescos and the Palace of the People. Radu was very helpful and organized everything perfectly. Ready to answer all questions.
Hi Mr Andreas, thank you so much for the great feedback!! All the best from Romania! Radu
My wife and I really enjoyed our tour’s of the Parliament Palace & Ceausescu’s house. The palace was amazing. Such grand and ornate rooms and corridors. Ceausescu’s house was an interesting look into history and the style of home decor at that point in time. Our guide Radu was wonderful. He communicated with us very well about timing changes for our tour and was extremely knowledgeable about Bucharest and answered all of our questions.
Everything was very interesting and worth seeing. I can only recommend this tour and the guide Radu was very friendly and we would love to do other tours with him as well.
Our tour operator Radu was very kind helpful and extremely knowledgeable. Ceausescu’s house and the Parliament Palace were both interesting and provided insight into who Ceausescu was as a person.
Hi Ms Davis, thank you so much for the great feedback! All the best from Romania!
