Mike Culpepper gives us some background on Buzludzha HERE:
Buzludzha is a mountain in Bulgaria that has seen a number of historic events. In 1441 the Turks were defeated there and driven from Bulgaria. In 1891 Bulgarian socialists met there clandestinely and organized. In 1981 the ruling Communist Party erected a huge monumental building, memorializing these events and meant to be a meeting space for Bulgarian Communists for centuries to come. Last year, the monument was gifted to the Bulgarian Socialist Party who may restore it if they can find the funds.
Timothy Allen does a great writeup with some amazing photos that he took at Buzludzha HERE:
Buzludha is Bulgaria’s largest ideological monument to Communism. Designed by architect Guéorguy Stoilov, more than 6000 workers were involved in its 7 year construction including 20 leading Bulgarian artists who worked for 18 months on the interior decoration. A small, universally expected donation from every citizen in the country formed a large portion of the funds required to build this impressive structure that was finally unveiled in 1981 on what was the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state.
It is now in disrepair and abandoned but it is still an amazing structure both in terms of its location on top of a peak in the Balkan Mountains but also in terms of its pretty amazing quality considering it was built in the early 80′s.
You can find this awesome monument on Google Maps:
Some photos courtesy of Timothy Allen:
Some other photos found elsewhere:
Here is some video of the Buzludzha monument:
For a history lesson of Bulgaria’s communist movement – you can watch the video below; it’s a very interesting 5 minutes with historical video:
The grand opening of Buzludzha in 1981:
The front of the now defaced building … Forget Your Past:
What it looked like when it opened:
