Communist Relics in Bucharest

Most travel agencies selling trips to Romania agree on the fact that Bucharest is surely not the best this big Country in the easternmost part of Europe has to offer in terms of archaeological or historical significance, nature or art.

Actually the town, originally founded in the 15th century, is today mostly made of modern buildings – meaning it was extensively redesigned and rebuilt in the 1980s. This happened as a result of a huge earthquake in 1977, killing thousands in Bucharest and destroying or damaging many buildings. The earthquake, and the will of the most famous Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, triggered the realization of an incredible architectural master plan, centered on the huge House of the Republic – the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon – which in turn called for the demolition of a good 30% of the existing buildings in Bucharest, including churches and many historical highlights.

This conspicuous palace stands out as one of the world’s most imposing examples of communist architecture, thus making for an interesting destination for those interested in the ‘heritage of Communism’ in Europe. Well, the Palace of the Parliament – as it is called today – is so imposing that everybody coming to Bucharest will probably spot it and pay a visit.

But Bucharest has more to offer for those interested in the traces of the luckily bygone era of communist leadership.

Opened to the public in 2016, the private residence of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Helena, both executed on Christmas day in 1989 during the quick but very violent revolution which led to the end of communism in Romania, can be fully visited today as a museum. Built soon after Ceausescu took control of the already established communist regime in 1965, it is an interesting example of eclectic architecture from the 1960s, designed by the Israeli architect Aron Grimberg-Solari. All the original furniture is on display, and many items belonging to the most hated couple in Romanian history can be admired as well.

As usual in communist Countries in Europe, before 1989 the National Military Museum received much attention, growing up to host a collection of weapons, tanks and aircraft of considerable size. The place, located close to central Bucharest, is surely worth a visit especially for those looking for unusual Soviet weaponry!

Another easy-to-find communist-themed site is the Palace of the Free Press, the only imposing building in Stalinist style in Bucharest, built in the early 1950s for the propaganda-press. A big statue of Lenin used to seat prominently ahead of the façade. It was removed in 1990, to celebrate the end of the dictatorship. Many emblems of communism – hammers, sickles and stars – decorate the walls of this now mostly unused relic.

Finally, the very central palace of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which since the 1950s until 1989 was occupied by the Romanian Communist Party, is a distinctive example of rationalist architecture from the late 1930s, with much to tell about Cold War history. It was from a balcony of this palace that Nicolae Ceausescu gave his famous last speech, just days before he was arrested and shot (see this post).

This post is about all these sights. Photographs were taken in June 2017.

Navigate this post – Click on links to scroll

Sights

House of the Republic – now Palace of the Parliament

No words can describe the size and bulkiness of this building. Together with the Bulevardul Unirii – the boulevard leading to the front façade – with its residential and ancillary office buildings clustered around the palace, each the size of a big shopping mall,  the ensemble is really unique even for the usual pomp of communist Countries. Everything here was built in the 1980s on the design of the young Anca Petrescu, who at that time was in her thirties.

From the boulevard to the square ahead of the façade you can easily spend some time trying to find a good way to photograph this building.

The façade is not flat, and this makes it not excessively imposing inspite of the real width and height. Furthermore, a terraced garden, gently ascending from the street level to that of the front entrance above, somewhat reduces the perceived height of the building.

Access for the public is from the northern side. From there the palace is possibly more imposing, for the façade comes down abruptly to the street level, differently from the front.

The inside is by far the least convincing part of the design. Here you clearly perceive the ‘megalomaniac’ attitude of the Ceausescu, who asked for a building with more than 600 rooms, for which no realistic function could be imagined at that time – nor can be guessed today. You can see a succession of halls in diverse styles, some of which may find a place in an old railway station, some in a congress center, others in a luxury hotel, some in Buckingham Palace, a few in a church, and so on… A collection of stately rooms, some of them really immense, all lacking any focal point – a throne, a dinner table, a work of art. As a matter of fact, this severely oversized building is used today only for a minimal part as a governmental building. Most of the rooms are used for congresses, marriages, company meetings and international summits. But you clearly feel the place is basically uninhabited, and except for the crowds of tourists, mostly unused.

As a part of the tour you can get access to the balcony on the front façade, from which you can enjoy a nice view of the city, and in particular of the perspective created by the boulevard ahead of the palace.

All in all, in my view this palace is much more interesting from the outside, where you can appreciate the size and good proportion of the master plan, and the interesting particulars of the late-classicist communist style. The inside is where you perceive most the unsuitability of the palace for any practical function. You may be stricken by the number and proportion of the rooms and the plenty of high quality materials used for construction and decoration, but you may also get bored soon by the endless sequence of unused – and unusable – halls, corridors and flights of stairs.

Getting there and moving around

For a western tourist taxi is the most efficient and cost-effective way for moving around in Bucharest. Depending on where you are taken first – the north entrance or the front façade – you may choose to take a walk around the building, or a part of it, before or after your tour of the inside. Visiting inside is only possible through a guided tour. Reservation is totally recommended, for this is probably the most visited attraction in town. Furthermore, if you are put in a waiting list you may be forced to stay close to the ticket office in the basement for more than you might want, with nothing to see and do. You can make a reservation through their website or ask your hotel to do it for you. A day in advance may be enough, for entries are at high frequency. Security with metal detector is part of the treatment. For taking pictures inside you need to buy a permit at a small fee. The visit inside takes really long – more than an hour – and it may turn out very boring especially for children, for there are no ‘highlights’ inside.

Palatul Primaverii – The Private Residence of the Ceausescu in Bucharest

The name of the residence translates into ‘Spring Palace’. It was built in the mid-1960s when Nicolae Ceausescu came to power. It was intended from the beginning as a private residence for the dictator, his wife and their three children. Differently from the Palace of the Republic, it is not absurdly sized especially for todays standard, about the size of an average Hollywood villa.

From a historical standpoint this place is very interesting, for as an official residence of the president of Romania, it hosted meetings with leaders and politicians of many foreign Countries, most notably Richard Nixon, the first American president to pay a state visit to Romania. Furthermore, this house has a lot of typical ‘Cold War style’ features. It was not publicized at all inside Romania, where only a restricted group knew of its existence before the revolution in 1989-90. Coming close was made impossible by a guarded perimeter with a few checkpoints all around a large area of the town, where embassies and notable members of the Communist Party had their residences. Inside there are an underground bunker for protection and an access to a network of tunnels leading to the palace of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and other decision centers in Bucharest. The villa was taken during the revolution, but anything was left basically as it was – the intruders, who in 1989 were suffering from a famine plus from heat, electricity and water starvation, took away all the food.

The eclectic style of the building, integrally designed by the same architect, is also an interesting specimen of luxury architecture from the 1960s.

On the ground floor, the first rooms are the studio of the dictator, where most important meetings were held, with the walls covered with wooden panels. Then an ancillary room with a chess table, a central lobby with a fountain and stairs leading to the upper floor and to the basement, a large drawing room and a dining room can be visited close by. On the same floor are also the private rooms of one of the two sons of the Ceausescu couple. From the main drawing room it is possible to reach an inner garden with peacocks – not the original exemplars, but Nicolae loved these birds, which used to live here also before 1990.

In the basement it is possible to find a winery and a nice middle-ages-themed, count-Dracula-style canteen with a fireplace. A private movie theater seating about 30 is part of this area. The projectors in the back – Philips, not from the Eastern Bloc… – together with an archive of rare movies have been carefully cataloged, and are now part of the inventory, similarly to every item in the house.

Nicolae Ceausescu was born to a family of workers, and was a shoemaker in his youth. After he came to power he progressively adopted a more and more luxurious lifestyle, but he could never relinquish his very humble origins. The room he reportedly favored most in his fancy villa, and where he liked to spend most of the time, was a passage in the basement, with some simple chairs, a small table, and a very small light close to the roof. Some speculate this was the setting which mostly resembled the house he had lived in as a kid. Another explanation may be a secret armored door in this room, giving direct access to the bunker…

The bunker with a crisis room is where Ceausescu operated in the tumultuous days of December 1989. He finally decided to try to reestablish power with a speech which turned out to be his famous last public appearance, a few days before he was arrested and executed. Here was the entrance to the network of tunnels leading to other palaces in Bucharest – today it has been bricked up. A walk along a service corridor in the underground allows to have a glance to the many service rooms in this area – including a laundry, a room for an independent power supply system and much more.

Another strange ‘private passage’ is where a gallery of many portraits of the Ceausescu can be found, together with hunt trophies and hunt-related gifts from some African leaders and close friends of the Romanian dictator. Nicolae was reportedly not good as a hunter, but he liked to nourish the idea of being so, and he was often photographed with trophies he rarely caught himself. Paintings portraying the couple were already there when the Ceausescu used to live in the house.

In a wing on the top floor are the private rooms of the two other children of the Ceausescu.

In another wing are the apartments of Helena and Nicolae, with a bedroom, study, bathroom and dressing room for each of them.

The separate bedrooms were not used much, for they used to sleep in a common bedroom with a nice balcony and a view of the front garden.

There was also another common bathroom, lavishly decorated, which was reportedly used more often by the couple. The same is true for a smaller dressing room with wardrobes for both, which was typically used by the couple. Here and in the main wardrobe close by it is possible to find the many dresses belonging to the Ceausescu. The smell of old fabric here is really horrible, but the sight of their clothes adds much to the perception of this place as the ‘lion’s lair’.

In a third wing of the top floor it is possible to find possibly the most beautiful room of the house, which is basically a ‘garden-room’, with plants and a nice peacock-themed mosaic wall and fountain – a nice example of decoration from the 1960s.

Descending again to the ground floor you can continue your visit with the huge wellness area, with a sauna, Turkish bath, infra-red lamp, equipment for various wellness and beauty treatments – some of them were probably fancy in those years, but now they seem exotic and more like old-style medical stuff… There is also a barber shop.

Finally, the indoor swimming pool. This is very big and deep even for todays standard, and the zodiac-themed mosaic decoration of the walls is luminous and really gorgeous. There is direct access to the garden through a porch.

You can access the inner garden and reach the front entrance of the property walking along a nice covered passage.

All in all, this is possibly the site I liked most during my stay in Bucharest. I would surely recommend a visit for the great historical and architectural significance of the place. The place is very authentic, and you can perceive it distinctly from the many personal items scattered around the house and from the appearance of the rooms, which have come almost unaltered from the end of the 1980s.

Getting there and moving around

The Spring Palace is in the northeastern quarter of central Bucharest, in what is probably one of the nicest parts of the town, with high-level residential buildings, most of them built very recently, foreign embassies, well-kept parks and schools. If you are visiting the area of Parcul Herastrau or Parcul Bordei you may choose to come to the mansion with a nice walk. Otherwise the best way to come here is with the usual taxi. Visiting is possible only with a guide. You can opt for a regular group tour or a personal tour. The latter was my choice. You can book it in advance (one day in advance in my case) through their website. The guide was very kind and knowledgeable, and the 1.5 hour visit really interesting and full of details.

National Military Museum

This museum is composed of two main parts. The permanent exhibition in the main building covers the military history of Romania from the first settlements to the present day. For those with an interest for the complicated history of this Country, the relationship with the Ottoman and Russian Empires, the foundation of the Kingdom of Romania in the 19th century, its role in both World Wars and the advent of communism, this museum offers much valuable information. Little is said of what happened during and after the 1989 revolution. There are just scant signs in English, and the Soviet-style of the exhibition is a bit outdated. Anyway there is much stuff of interest to be checked up.

Outside to the back of this building it is possible to visit a rich collection of weapons, ranging in time, type and size. A conspicuous part is composed by cannons and howitzers, some of them mounted on railway trolleys.

There are of course more ancient cannons, from the 18th and early 19th centuries, stored very close to some torpedoes and naval mines.

A focal point of the exhibition is a 2P16 Soviet tactical missile system with movable launcher. Also on display there is what appears to be a version of a SCUD-A system in fully erected position.

On the outside there is also a collection of tanks, radio equipment, a Soviet SA-2 anti-aircraft missile and a MiG-15. Some of the cannons are ‘made in Germany’.

The ancillary buildings host a collection of uniforms, coaches and a small collection of aircraft and engines for aviation, including the reentry vehicle of the only Soyuz mission flown by a Romanian astronaut.

Taken alone, this outdoor collection is much interesting for everybody, and especially for the kids. I would recommend also a visit to the inside for more history-minded people.

Getting there and moving around

The museum is located less than a mile from the Palace of the Parliament. The neighborhood, while totally central and safe, is nothing special, so I suggest going there by taxi for saving time. Visiting of the entire complex may take 1-1.5 hours on a self-guided basis.

Casa Scinteii – now House of the Free Press

This is the only building designed in the style of Stalin’s classicism in Bucharest, and it looks like a cousin of the skyscrapers in Moscow and other similar towers in Europe (see this post). The name refers to ‘Scinteia’ – meaning ‘spark’ – the official propaganda newspaper of the Romanian Communist Party, which had its headquarter here. Ready by the mid-1950s, the building was placed at the end of a majestic perspective going from the triumphal arch through a park directly to the statue of Lenin – removed in 1990 – and to this building.

Today a nice modern monument has replaced Lenin, and the area, quickly reachable from the airport, is among the most sought after by international companies. Many new buildings have been built in the neighborhood, making the contrast with this partly abandoned Soviet relic even more striking.

From a distance the building looks imposing but well proportioned. At a closer look, it reveals its communist soul through many hammer and sickle insignia, together with some stars in the decoration.

Getting closer you realize that there are bushes on the roof, many shutters are stuck halfway down, the windows are covered in dust, everything indicating a state of partial disrepair. The building is probably looking for a new owner, but the excessive size and the inconvenient heritage it bears perhaps are making things more difficult.

Getting there and moving around

Located to the north of the city center, close to the expo and on the northwestern corner of Parcul Herastrau. You can reach the area with a pleasant walk from the triumphal arch of WWI (Arcul de Triumf) or through the park, or you can get directly to it with a taxi. The place is mainly closed and anyway not open to the public, but you can have a walk around freely.

Palace of the Ministry of Internal Affairs

This palace, completed in the early 1940s, hosted many institutions during its history, including the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, with the executive office of the leader of the Party. It is located in the totally central Piata Revolutiei – Revolution Square – in front of the former royal palace, now hosting the museum of fine arts.

The place was the central stage of the revolution in late 1989. The balcony on the front façade of the building is where Nicolae and Helena Ceausescu tried a final move to regain control over the Romanian people. Here they faced the public for the last time, and for the first time they were openly contested. The video recordings of that historical moment, together with the similarly famous videos of the Berlin Wall torn down, stand out as vivid symbols of the end of the communist era in Europe.

What followed the last speech was a short period of confusion, with the armed forces and the revolutionary faction shooting in the streets. The Ceausescu fled the building by helicopter, only to be arrested the following day, rapidly put on trial and executed soon after. More than one thousand lost their lives struggling to definitively push dictatorship to an end. Vivid traces of the fight can be seen on the façade of this building, in the form of bullet holes above some of the windows.

Getting there and moving around

The place is totally central, and easy to reach by walk if you are staying in one of the many international hotels in central Bucharest. Visiting inside is not possible, but you can come very close to all sides of the palace.

Jüterbog/Niedergörsdorf – Abandoned Flight Academy in the GDR

The BEST pictures from Soviet bases in the GDR
ALL in ONE BOOK!

Soviet Ghosts in Germany

GRAB IT in PAPERBACK or KINDLE from your national Amazon store!
amazon.com | amazon.de | amazon.co.uk
amazon.it | amazon.fr | amazon.co.jp

The area around the small town of Jüterbog – located 60 miles south of Berlin – has a long military tradition, with storages, barracks and training installations in place since the years of the Kaiser and Bismarck, about mid-19th century.

The region was selected for building one of the first flight academies in Germany before WWI, and flight activities with airships and other exotic flying material from the early age of aviation took place in those years.

Much was forcibly dismantled following the defeat of Germany in 1918, but the place regained primary attention with the advent of Hitler and the Nazi party to power. Among the various military installations built in the area, a modern flight academy was erected anew – baptized ‘Fliegertechnische Schule Niedergörsdorf’.

Initial technical training for both ground and flying staff of the Luftwaffe was imparted here until the break out of WWII and the conquest of Poland, when the academy moved to Warsaw.

The extensive group of buildings in Jüterbog retained a primary role in the advanced training of flight officers and engineers, aircraft and engine technicians. Technical personnel were trained to operate innovative weapon systems, in collaboration with research centers of the Luftwaffe.

With the end of the war the region fell under Soviet rule, and the military facilities – including the academy, which survived the war largely intact – were reassigned to various functions.

Info is available in less detail about this part of the story, as typical with military bases in the territories occupied by the Soviets… Part of the buildings of the academy were used again for training staff of tank divisions, but also a KGB station was reportedly activated there. As with most Soviet installations, it was given back to reunified Germany by 1994.

The place is since then abandoned, but differently from other sites formerly managed by the Soviets, it has been inscribed in the registry of landmark buildings, being an interesting specimen of Nazi military architecture.

Following WWII, the nearby airbase of Jüterbog – about a mile south of the academy complex – was operated both by East German (GDR) and Soviet air combat groups, until the Russians left in 1992. Soon after, the airport was permanently closed and partly dismantled. Unlike other Soviet bases in the GDR, flying units there never upgraded to MiG-29, so the aircraft shelters you can see there are of the oldest types.

I would suggest visiting the site for two reasons, a) the uniqueness of the architectural composition, with much of what you see dating back from the Nazi era – you can clearly notice the typical Nazi ‘sheer grandeur’, differing from the often poor and shabby Soviet military architecture… b) the very famous mural of the Soviet Soldier, which apart from the result of a little attack by an ignorant writer, is still in an almost perfect shape.

The following photographs were taken in late August 2016.

Sights

Niedergörsdorf Flight Academy

It should be pointed out that this place is actually off-limits, and there are clear prohibition signs at least on the front gate. Furthermore, it is not an isolated installation, but surrounded by other buildings, close to a small but active railway station and not far from a supermarket. Accessing the site via the blocked main gate is clearly not possible.

Finding an easy way in is not difficult, but standing to the signs on the gate, the place is also actively guarded, so you should be quick and concentrated when moving around. In order to shorten your time in, I suggest turning your attention to the northernmost part of the site.

Walking along the northern perimeter inside the base some Cold War, not very artistically significant murals can be spotted on the external wall made of the usual Soviet concrete slabs.

From there you can easily reach the semicircular building of the grand hall, probably the most notable of the base, and the one where the famous mural of the Soviet Soldier is.

When moving around the corner from the back to the front façade of the building, you find yourself on the road leading to the blocked main gate. You may be spotted from outside the base, so be careful.

Once in the area in front of the semicircular building, you can see to the south a nice perspective of the other buildings of the academy, surrounding a large inner court.

The inside of the main semicircular building – which should not be accessed – is in a state of disrepair.

There are two main floors and a less interesting third attic floor.

The beautiful mural of the Soviet Soldier can be easily found close to the stairs.

Here are some other details of this nice and sober example of Soviet monumental art.

Many other parts of the lower floors are covered in painted decorations, but these were probably of lower quality with respect to the Soviet Soldier – which appears to be a real fresco – and are today falling from the walls.

Another highlight of the visit to this building is the grand theatre. You should consider going with a tripod and/or a powerful torchlight for getting better photos than these, for the room is totally dark. Very creepy, btw…!

On the former part of the sports arena to the west of the building complex it is possible to spot a new little gym. Possibly to your surprise you will find the place is still run by a sporting club – this is nice, also for getting a better idea of how the place looked like when it was an active training center. On the cons side, walking around undercover is not easy, and maybe you are violating a private property ‘no trespassing’ instruction – even though I didn’t notice any.

An interesting part of the sports arena is the abandoned pool, which I guess was already part of the Nazi construction plan too – check photographs of postcards of the time on the Internet.

To get an impression of the complex from above, you may have a look to aerial pictures taken during a dedicated flight, reported here.

Jüterbog Airbase

A quick visit to the airbase south of the academy can reveal some interesting sights, including aircraft shelters from the early Cold War era which have been converted to hay storages or garages for agricultural vehicles. Many former taxiways can be freely accessed by car, some of them have been turned into ‘official’ roads. Also the apron in front of the large maintainance hangars can be accessed with a car with no restriction.

A small aeroclub operates with trikes from a new narrow grass runway in the northwestern part of the field, so access to this part of the field is restricted. Interestingly, much of the external fence with barbed wire is still in place around this area.

Other activities on site include go-karting. To the east of the base, part of the shelters are occupied by a private collection – Shelter Albrecht – centered on WWII and Cold War relics (covered in this chapter).

For a comprehensive set of aerial pictures of the base, taken during a flight over the area, have a look to this post.

Compared to other Soviet bases in East Germany, Jüterbog doesn’t offer much to the curious urban explorer today. Yet due to the vicinity of the flight academy it’s surely worth a visit. Furthermore, the countryside around is nice – apart from the unpleasant sight of a real forest of wind turbines! – so you may choose to have a walk around just for pleasure.

The area of Jüterbog is actually full of other interesting sites related to military history, documented in this post.

Getting there and moving around

Reaching the former flight academy is an easy task. The main gate is on Kastanienallee, Niedergörsdorf, and it can be accessed with a 0.1 miles walk from the Altes Lager railway station, again in Niedergorsdorf, Brandenburg. There is a convenient small parking besides the railway station. In case you want to explore the site, I would suggest considering this as a trailhead.

The area of Niedergörsdorf and Jüterbog can be reached in about 1 h 15 min from downtown Berlin by car. This is my preferred way for moving around – I hate having tight schedules when exploring! – but reaching the ‘operational zone’ by train from Berlin would take probably a bit less.

For visiting the base at Jüterbog you will need a car. Driving on the former taxiways is part of the fun when touring the base!

There are aircraft shelters both on the northern and southern sides of the runway, which is oriented in an east-western direction. The most convenient to come close to are those on the northern side, but be careful not to interfere with the many private businesses around. Barb wire fence can be found on the northwestern corner of the base.

I would suggest having a quick look at the Google map of the area for deciding how to move around. I wouldn’t rate these two ‘attractions’ difficult to visit in terms of physical barriers or when it comes to keeping the right course.