Weather wise the morning started as dreary and bleak, the tour we booked was also a dark subject. The title of the tour, “The Ashes of Communism”. To start, we went to see the outside of the parliament building. It is the second largest administrative building in the world, just behind the Pentagon. Imagine that the massive building seen above ground is like an iceberg, it is as big below the ground as above.
The Romanians started down the communist road rather unknowingly by letting Russia come into their country after the Second World War. The Romanian troops were sent to Siberia or taken out at the eastern border, therefore “opening the door” for Russia to occupy Romania. This step allowed the existing government and parliamentary leaders to be arrested and imprisoned. Pressure was then put on King Michael to surrender to the USSR, which he thought would allow release of the officials. The king was forced to abdicate and left his country, but the officials were killed and the country fell into communist rule. The banks were closed, media became controlled by one source and a dictatorship began by 1947.
Bucharest had thrived through the 19th century and first part of the 20th. It was known as “Little Paris”due to the architecture brought here by the younger generation of the time. They traveled to France and brought back the styles that they saw and admired.
Much of this beautiful, affluent part of Bucharest was torn down to build the parliament building. Over 40,000 people were relocated from the 2.7 square mile area that was demolished. Bucharest would be a much different place if communism had not gotten in its way.
In the old town there are still many different styles of architecture, all there to mark the changes through time. Very few churches exist in this old area, most were demolished by Russia. We went into two orthodox and one Catholic Church that remained. They were all very small, but beautiful. The cathedral was under renovation, so it was not open for us to see. The process to clean up the blemish that 1947 – 1989 made is slow, but our guide was upbeat about the direction that they are going.
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