Bran, Transylvania

Horezu, Oltenia

Moldavian elegance, near Vatra Dornei

Moldavian House with Twelve Gables, Prislop

This monstrous orante neo-Baroque palace, totally out of proportion with itself or it's surrondings, is almost inaccessable by pedestrians due to the surounding grandiose avenues of ornate cobblestones that lead to nowhere. The phalanxes of architects and designers who Ceausescu bullied into creating this crowning glory of Facists monuments apparently were too intimidated by his excesses to modify them. The top section, with only a modest five storeys and some sixty rooms, with mere fifty foot ceilings, was to be Ceausescu's personal residence. Rusted cranes soar high overhead, frozen since 1989 when work stopped with Ceausescu's execution.

Seen from the Piata Unirii, almost a mile away, the Casa Republicii looms like an impending catastrophe. Lining the grand boulevard are miles of ornate apartment buildings, many unfinished, with abandonned building equipment rusting in the shadows. The fountains of intricately-carved stone in the middle are never on, and are probably too costly to run, if they ever worked at all. Beggar childern ply the central corridor, selling flowers, sunflower seeds, and themselves.

Looking the other direction, away from Ceausescu's folly, the rest of his grande scheme deteriorates into rusted cranes and the rubble of unrealized construction sites. The plan culminates with the grand National Library, dated 1989, of which only the outer hulk of building was completed. All six storyes remain open to the elements. This entire center of Bucharest was created by Ceausescu after the 1975 earthquake which did devastate many old buildings. Unfortunately, he razed four square miles of fine old neighborhoods, churches, and historic buildings to make way for his final self-aggrandizing monument, which bankrupted the country and permanently blighted the center of Bucharest. Most Romanians are skeptical the country can ever stagger out from under the weight of this disastrous legacy.

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