Palace of the Parliament
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania is a multi-purpose building containing both chambers of the Romanian Parliament. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Palace is the world's largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building.
The Palace was designed and nearly completed by the Ceauşescu regime as the seat of political and administrative power. Nicolae Ceauşescu named it the House of the Republic (Casa Republicii), but many Romanians call it the People's House (Casa Poporului).
Trivia
In 2002, Costa Gavras shot scenes of the film Amen in the Palace, meant to represent the Vatican.
In 2009, the Palace appeared in Episode 1, Series 14 of the BBC motoring programme Top Gear, where the presenters, Jeremy Clarkson (in an Aston Martin DBS Volante), Richard Hammond (in a Ferrari California) and James May (in a Lamborghini LP560-4 Spyder) had a "Sat-Nav" race to the Palace, and are then shown driving throughout its underground tunnels and garages.