When the communists came to power after World War II, they wrote another page in the history of the Arenas. Since 1966, for two years, Roman Arenas entered into a process of restoration and modification, any badge or ornament resembling the monarchy era being overthrown. They had to erase the memory of a glorious past from the minds of the Romanians and make them associate the “Roman Arenas” with the communist era, so they closed the amphitheatre and raised and covered the scene. They poured concrete over grass and built offices for the administrative staff behind the scenes. The porch has been closed to new large glass windows, while the royal box was increased from four rooms to six rooms. The roof of the lodge was also rebuilt, and under its terrace they arranged a room for film screenings. At the Roman Arenas were held now, folk concerts, theatre performances or movie screenings.
After the Revolution, the arenas have been forgotten and their function of amusement and recreation state was replaced with a more practical function, that of a textile production and storage.
During its entire existence in Romania, the communist regime was able to see its political message perhaps the best expressed in the architectural planning of Bucharest.
Architecture, seen as a science that designs buildings, both residential, as well as the institutional, could (as could any other scientific or cultural field) not have another faith than the one subordinated to the communist totalitarian system, which was a perfect mindset defined by the Orwellian formula of “double language” – meaning the difference between the official discourse and the real one.
The intentions of the country’s leaders in that period were to uproot the inhabitants of Romania in huge apartment blocks districts. This action was meant to accomplish several objectives: alienation, homogenization, the transformation of the Romanians into “automatic machines of modernity” in order to finally fulfil their evolution towards the “new man” (the socialist type)(connection with The futurist’s manifesto)
A second aspect of communist beliefs included the institutional buildings constructed in a megalomaniac way – specific to the totalitarian regimes, serve as an expression of prosperity and welfare of the state.
Finally, one last way to put in practice the Communist totalitarian ideas was the destruction of monuments of historical value which served as memorial places for people, in order to erase the memory of a previous period regime off their minds.
Bucharest wasn’t literally torn down, but it was destroyed. All the communist tenant blocks that were constructed during that time destroyed the air and elegance of “The little Paris”. Those constructions are connected to The Futurists Manifesto, as the tenant blocks were constructed in order to provide equality among the romanians, but they also provided lack of individuality and Romanians had to forget who they used to be.
The Parliament Palace is an unwavering, oppressive, white symbol of the communist era in Romania. It doesn’t represent neither purity nor grace, but a giant white display building which celebrates the era of tyranny in Romania. In order for this construction to be built, there were over 7 square kilometres of the old centre demolished and an artificial hill created.
Ceausescu came through with The Futurists’ idea that there is no need or time for God/Gods or religion and initiated the destruction of some of Bucharest‘s churches and monasteries.
Vacaresti Monastery Photo: buciumul.ro
Vacaresti monastery was one of the most valuable historical monuments from Bucharest and also the biggest monastery in the South-East Europe. It was an architectural masterpiece and it was used as royal court, cultural center, school and prison. On 2nd December 1984 Ceausescu visited the monastery ordering the demolition of the whole compound, under the pretext that on that place will be build the new Palace of Justice. The monastery was demolished in 1987, but the palace was never built in that place.
Churches were moved away and then enclosed by blocks so that they wouldn’t be seen. The “New Man” of Romania should not waste time praying to God; He had to celebrate the speed, machinery, youth and industry as per The Futurists’ manifesto.
The chief-architect of the construction was a young woman, Anca Petrescu, of only 28 years old, but the one in control of everything was actually, Nicolae Ceausescu.
Initially, the project presumed 7000 real-estates to be destroyed, but as the plan was chaotically evolving because of the “Prime-architect” of Romania, Ceausescu, the number of the buildings demolished raised to 9000. Anyone was able to understand the plans, apart from Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena. What the constructors build one day, they would tear it down the next day and completely change and rebuild the day after. There is not one imported item in the whole palace. If they needed a material that was only produced abroad, Ceausescu would give orders so that a factory would be built to produce it in Romania. He was very adamant that he didn’t want any imports to be used in his palace.
“The moral white” (Ripolin) of the building was adapted to Le Corbusier’s beliefs, even though Le Corbusier didn’t intend his ideas about a better tomorrow to be extended in such an extreme way by the totalitarian states. He saw white as a colour of clearness, innocence and virtue, but also as a sign which marks the transition from the old world to a new world. Romania was stepping into a new world and this was marked through the construction of “The House of People”.
The huge, white governmental building can be seen from any location in Bucharest and this has a huge impact on the way the citizens behave. The semiotics of its massive scale (power) and its design (order) give the Romanians various sensations making them unconsciously behave in a different way.
The cold, sterile, austere and completely unwelcoming whiteness of the building was accomplished by using one million cubic metres of marble. The marble used is also white and obviously it wasn’t decided to be like that for no reason. The marble had to be white and there had to exist columns, because of their association with the great qualities of the Ancient Greek civilisation.
For the ultimate note of elegance, the place was covered in crystal lamps and crystal chandeliers (one of them weights 2, 5 tons).
The Parliament Palace also contains 2 anti-atomic shelters that Ceausescu built, a symbol of his prolific paranoia, at the basement of the Parliament Palace where he could snug in case of a tragic event. The chief-architect, Anca Petrescu, also relates about some secret roads that led to the metro. The army made these secret roads completely hidden to the public eyes when the construction started. According to Anca Petrescu, the construction is not finished even today as the underground plans are still not complete. However, this wasn’t an impediment for Ceausescu to inaugurate the building, and the words he said when he did that still rules over the time: “What your father built in 7 years, you won’t be able to paint in 20”.
Looking into Bucharest’s architecture, one could easily observe that it represents one of the most evident proofs of the obsession to express supremacy and to exercise control of Nicolae Ceausescu, the dictator who came to power in 1965. He started by posing as chief architect of “New Romania”, but his decisions had a brutal, yet intense attack on Romania’s architecture and history, reforming Bucharest into one of the most affected communist cities in post Second World War Europe. The Romanian communist era, distorted Bucharest from the Small Paris of the Balkans to a copy of the URSS’ architectural style. Its architecture went from the before Second World War cosmopolitan soft Classical style to the imposing Socialist Realist one.
The House of the Parliament (as it is known nowadays) is one of the still living memories of a traumatic past of tyranny. The Palace is the very picture of a cruel regime which mutilated a nation and managed to erase the beauty and soul of the city. Its surface (330 000 square meters) catalogues it as being the biggest administrative construction in Europe and the second in the world, after the U.S. Pentagon. The Guinness Book ranks its volume as the third in the world. The Palace’s scale, design and surroundings were the ultimate manifestation of Ceausescu’s dream which calculated this in order to express his power.
In order for this construction to take place, entire neighbourhoods were demolished with a surface later compared with the size of Venice. Valuable historic constructions and churches were destroyed, alongside 40 000 people that were forced to move (vision of apocalypse). They were forced to leave everything behind because of the “systematisation”and move in clusters of badly built concrete towers and apartment blocks in proletarian areas of the city.
The Boulevard of Victory was cut through the centre of the city to provide Ceausescu with a suitably path to his building. At one end of the Boulevard is the Circus constructed entirely of simple boring concrete portions, while at the other is the governing Palace; in one side is the dirty reality of the people, while on the other side is the luxurious taste of a Tiran. Architecture finds justification here in politics not in art as even the layout with straight roads is the permanent symbol of order, control, and power.
People were not even allowed to walk on the streets outside the gates of the Palace, so there was only a large empty boulevard which was haunting the city, making them understand that any rebellion form would be pointless against the power of a totalitarian state.
The “fortress” did not become more useful after the revolution, even though car traffic was permitted. Most of the stores located nearby bankrupted as people continued to prefer the other boulevards for evening walks because these streets simply did not go anywhere.
The ashes of communism 
