Bucharest – Grave of Nicolae Ceaușescu

It’s a bit of a walk from the city centre to go to Ghencea Cemetery, which is absolutely not where Nicolae Ceaușescu would have expected to be buried. After he was executed on 25 December 1989, his body, along with his wife Elena, was buried here and they were given different plots around 10 metres apart. It was deliberately a pauper’s burial, they weren’t going to get the state burial that they had anticipated.

I struggled for a short while to find the grave, as I was using an older description of where they were located and it transpired that in 2010 the two former political leaders were exhumed to check that it was actually their bodies buried in the graves. Apparently the security guards at the entrance to the cemetery will walk you to the grave if you ask, but I wasn’t entirely comfortable asking someone where their former dictator was buried. Anyway, for anyone who wants to visit, it’s easy to find now, go to the central chapel, turn left and it’s there.

The new joint grave is a much grander affair than the others, although for anyone walking in the cemetery, it doesn’t particularly stand out and there are many more substantial tombs nearby. Some people come and visit this grave to honour Ceaușescu, but I think it’s fair to say that I didn’t do much honouring. Incidentally, after the bodies were exhumed, it was confirmed that it was the couple, with Nicolae still in the thick black coat that he was shot in.