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BUZLUDZHA Бузлуджа
The abandoned monument-house of the Bulgarian Communist Party, high in the Stara Planina.
r o undtr i pbulgar i a.co m
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THE OBJECT
A concrete saucer on a mountain, and the ideology that raised it.
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A FLYING SAUCER, RUN AGROUND On a ridge in the Central Balkan Mountains stands the largest monument the Bulgarian Communist Party ever built. It has stood empty since 1989. B uzludzha
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BUZLUDZHA IN BRIEF LOCATION
Buzludzha peak, Central Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria
ELEVATION
1,432 m (the peak was lowered 9 m for the foundation)
WHAT IT IS
House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party
ARCHITECT
Georgi Stoilov, 1929 to 2022
BUILT
1974 to 1981, by public subscription
OPENED
August 1981
TODAY
Exterior open, interior sealed
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WHERE IT STANDS Buzludzha rises above the Shipka Pass in the Central Balkan Mountains, about 24 km by road from Kazanlak. The summit was officially renamed Hadzhi Dimitar peak in 1942. The older name comes from the Turkish word for icy, a nod to the winters that batter the ridge for much of the year. The monument stands alone on the peak, visible for miles across the range.
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II
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WHY HERE, AND HOW Three moments in history, one architect, and seven years of concrete.
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THE PEAK WAS CHOSEN FOR ITS MEMORY Before a single panel was poured, three moments in Bulgarian history had already made this summit contested ground. B uzludzha
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THREE EVENTS, ONE PEAK 1868. Hadzhi Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha's rebel band made their last stand here against Ottoman forces. The defeat passed into Bulgarian legend and into the poetry of Hristo Botev. 1891. Socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev met in secret on the mountain, disguised as a memorial gathering, and founded the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers' Party, a forerunner of the Communist Party. 1944. In the last months of the Second World War, partisans and army detachments clashed on the peak.
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A STAR ON THE MOUNTAIN A monument here was proposed as early as 1898. In 1961, three memorials were unveiled on the peak: a statue of Hadzhi Dimitar, a relief of the 1891 congress, and a monument to the partisans. A fourth was still to come, larger than the rest and crowned by a red star. The competition was won by a young architect, Georgi Stoilov. Fifteen years passed between the decision and the first day of construction.
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GEORGI STOILOV Stoilov, 1929 to 2022, was a former mayor of Sofia and a cofounder of Bulgaria's Union of Architects. His first idea, a ring on open columns beneath the star, could not survive the wind and cold at 1,432 m. He redrew it as a saucer set on a tower, folding ancient and space age motifs into a single silhouette. Seen from directly above, the hall reads as a wheel.
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