It was here, at around 10:30 on December 21, 1989, that the Nicolae Ceausescu regime began to crumble. A large crowd of well over 100,000 people which had been brought in to dutifully cheer Ceausescu in the time-honored way in fact jeered him – on live television. The dictator’s astonished face when he realizes he is being booed is captured on video seconds before transmission is cut and the Romanian revolution begins. A white marble triangle, with the inscription Glorie martirilor nostri (Glory to our martyrs) points (slightly inaccurately) to the low balcony above the entrance of the former Central Committee building (today the Ministry of Internal Affairs) from where Ceausescu held his last public speech. He fled – by helicopter – from the roof of the building late the next morning.

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.

The House of the Free Press in Bucharest was built following the Russian architectural style.

Exterior only