On Christmas Day 1989, the president of Romania and his wife, Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu were shot by firing squad after a hurried trial. Their former home in Bucharest, Casa Ceaușescu, is open to the public, and I was keen to see whether the stories of solid gold taps was true.
As we congregated on the steps of Casa Ceaușescu for our tour, it was hard to miss the loud piercing wail of the peacocks roaming the grounds. After donning shoe covers, our group of twenty were informed of the domestics, which disappointedly banned photography.
Built in the mid-1960s and known at the time as the ‘Spring Palace’, the house belonged to the communist party rather than the family. Covering 3,600 square metres, it has over 70 rooms, but our visit took in only 20 of them. We were told they had three children, Nicu, Zoia and the youngest Valentin, the only one still living. Each had their own set of rooms which included bedroom, bathroom and living area.
We began in the ground floor office and reception room, where Richard Nixon was the only statesman ever greeted in their private residence. Although there was a grand piano none of the family played. However, Nicolae was a keen chess player, and we were told that no one ever beat, or dared to beat him on a set with peasants as pawns.
The dining room had a table, laid for ten which could be extended to seat twice the number, and a smaller circular breakfast table. Nicolae required regular meals due to his diabetes, and I later read there was no kitchen as all his meals were brought in as he was paranoid about being poisoned. An adjacent living area had board games set up which the family would have played after dinner.
The rooms were lavishly decorated with chandeliers of Murano glass, silk wallpaper, exotic wooden floors and walls. They contained gifts from international world leaders including Ming vases from China, Persian rugs and an elephant tusk from Zaire. The Japanese had gifted peacocks, with those we had heard in the grounds said to be later generations: peacocks appeared to have become a Ceaușescu favourite with the birds featuring in rugs, wallpaper and the swimming pool we saw later. Queen Elizabeth II had presented two black Labradors which seemed very her.
The bedroom of Nicolae and Elena had their PJs carefully folded on the bed.
Disappointingly, the rumour about the gold bathroom taps was a myth, as only industrial gold of seven carat was used and every year, many items had to be regilded. A huge room housed an astonishing number of wardrobes, and although some clothes were displayed, the majority had been destroyed, looted or stolen.
An arch led through to a 1970s extension, where the rooms had a more modern feel, and a ‘winter garden’ had been created with a retractable roof.
A spiral staircase took us back down to the spa area with several rooms for beauty treatments. The highlight for me was an extravagant, ostentacious swimming pool tiled with over one million pieces of mosaic depicting various cosmic scenes, fishes, peacocks etc.
As we finished our tour, we walked past a gallery displaying photographs of the Ceaușescu’s with world leaders, including a visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1978.
The 45-minute tour finished in the garden, where there was a café and small gift shop.
Tours in English take place every hour, but in our group, there were non-English speakers who were provided with an audio guide in their language. We booked our tickets online the day before: the website was in English and easy to navigate and tickets were emailed. We paid 60 Lei (£10 each) but declined the optional, and additional 30-minute documentary.
