To build the House of the People and the Research Institute nearby (intended for Elena Ceauşescu, the dictator’s wife) and the whole complex of ministries, institutes, and flats for the leaders of the country and for the members of the Communist Party, a whole part of the city was destroyed, just to build it all on the most seismic stable hill of Bucharest. It is said that one sixth of the city was destroyed during Communist time, the biggest ever destruction in times of peace.

It should have been the second biggest building in the world in terms of the surface it occupies (the Pentagon in the US is bigger than the House of the People) or the third biggest building in terms of its inner volume, just after Keop’s Pyramid. Its function: an administrative building, with facilities for press releases and meeting the press and holding conferences. Its advantages went further: it had a balcony for speeches to the masses, which overlooked a square where some 600,000 persons could gather, double the size of the square in front of the former Central Committee (now, Square of the Revolution), where Ceauşescu held his last speech in December 1989. Ceauşescu could not use it, however. By the end of 1989, only half of the building has been finished (while thousands of workers worked in three shifts, which meant they were working 24 hours a day). The first person to talk from the balcony was Michael Jackson in 1994, who upset his fans from Bucharest by greeting with, "Hello Budapest," the capital of the neighbouring country, Hungary.

Now the building is about 90% finished and can be visited. A visit is worthwhile to see luxuriant rooms. Some two rooms are used presently by the Parliament, while various rooms can be rented for various events.