Bulgaria’s Abandoned Communist Party Headquarters Buzludzha
Located atop Mount Buzludzha, about 120 km North-East of Plovdiv, sits the Buzludzha Monument – a ghastly reminder of how much communists loved to build giant, labor-intensive monuments in the middle of nowhere, rather than focusing on things like, say, feeding the population.
Officially known as the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the building was opened in 1981 by the Bulgarian communist regime and was meant to commemorate the events of 1891 that shaped Bulgaria’s socialist movement. However, as Bulgaria’s socialist republic came to an end in 1990, the appetite for maintaining these unpleasant reminders of the country’s oppressive past waned.
Without a functional purpose or maintenance funding, the building fell into disuse and began its path towards dereliction. The monument’s location served to only quicken the pace of damage to the building, as piercing winds and bitter winters assaulted the building’s exterior day after day.
Today, the building’s strange UFO-like shape, tendentious history, and ghastly aura attract urban explorers from around the world. However, Bulgaria’s socialist party is still interested in restoring the building to its former glory and is seeking funding for the project; so if you’re curious to see the Buzludzha Monument in it’s current state, you may want to travel there asap.
