The Interior Ministry Palace is a building on Revolution Square in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, Romania. It houses the

Ministry of Internal Affairs An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the i ...

. Parliament approved the building in 1912, as the old ministry headquarters had become cramped. In 1938, King

Carol II Carol II (4 April 1953) was King of Romania from 8 June 1930, until his forced abdication on 6 September 1940. As the eldest son of Ferdinand I of Romania, King Ferdinand I, he became crown prince upon the death of his grand-uncle, King Carol I, ...

ordered work to begin. Architect Paul Smărăndescu drew up plans based on the

Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus The Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus (Detlev Rohwedder House) is a building in Berlin that, at the time of its construction, was the largest office building in Europe. It was constructed between February 1935 and August 1936 to house the German Air Ministr ...

in Berlin and the state security building in Bratislava. Emil Prager became head engineer in 1939. Work was interrupted by World War II but resumed afterwards, being completed in 1950.History
at the Interior Ministry site During the war, it served as a shelter from

bombing raids A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanica ...

.Muraru, pp. 179-80 The Interior Ministry occupied the building from 1950 until 1958. Between the establishment of a

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

-dominated government in 1945 and the relaxation of repression in 1964, political detainees were held in the cells of the first and second underground floors and interrogated on the upper floors. The first-floor cells were nicknamed ''garsoniere'' (“flats”) while the ones below were called ''submarine'' (“undersea”). Each cell had a concrete bunk bed, table, two stools, a light bulb constantly kept on and an iron door. The cells held between two and four detainees. Guards ceaselessly patrolled the corridors. From 1958 to 1989, it served as the building of the Communist Party's central committee. On August 21, 1968, during the

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...

Nicolae Ceaușescu Nicolae Ceaușescu ( ; ; – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian politician who was the second and last Communism, communist leader of Socialist Romania, Romania, serving as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 u ...

made the defining speech of his 24-year rule from the building's balcony, challenging the Soviet Union. On December 22, 1989, shortly after noon, during the

Romanian Revolution The Romanian revolution () was a period of violent Civil disorder, civil unrest in Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania during December 1989 as a part of the revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several countries around the world, primarily ...

, a helicopter carrying Ceaușescu and his wife Elena took off from the palace roof, marking the end of his regime. Norbert Nemeș
De ce nu a renunțat Nicolae Ceaușescu la putere
Europa Liberă România, December 19, 2022 After the revolution, it housed the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

until 2006. Since that time, it serves as the Interior Ministry building.

Notes

References

*{{Cite book, title=Dicționarul penitenciarelor din România comunistă: 1945–1967, date=2008, language=ro, publisher=

Polirom Polirom or Editura Polirom ("Polirom" Publishing House) is a Romanian publishing house with a tradition of publishing classics of international literature and also various titles in the fields of social sciences, such as psychology, sociology, and ...

, first=Andrei , last=Muraru, author-link=Andrei Muraru, others=Institutul de Investigare a Crimelor Comunismului în România, isbn=978-973-46-0893-5, location=Iași, oclc=297531689 Government buildings completed in 1950 Palaces in Bucharest Former seats of national legislatures Romanian revolution Ministry of Administration and Interior (Romania) Defunct prisons in Romania