The House of the Bulgarian Communist Party is the largest monument in Bulgaria and is without doubt one of the most bizarre abandoned buildings in the world. This huge concrete saucer is just one of many forgotten communist monuments scattered across Bulgaria and is located on the Buzludzha peak of the Central Balkan Mountains.
Erected for the 90th anniversary of the Buzludzha congress, where the Bulgarian Social-Democratic Workers' Party, the predecessor of the Bulgarian Communist Party, was founded, it took military construction units almost seven years to complete the monument. Altogether more than 6000 workers and experts took part in the construction work while more than 20 leading Bulgarian artists, worked for 18 months in order to complete the interior decoration. Verses of "The International" and "The Worker's March" were inscribed on the entrance of the memorial. The staircases were decorated with red cathedral glass. In the 15m high main hall of the memorial, a large fresco housed portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and the Bulgarian communist leader Todor Zhivkov.
The dome of the structure was covered with 30 tons of copper. Two 12m stars of ruby glass were built in to the top of the 70m high pylon of the monument that symbolizes a waving communist flag. These Buzludzha stars were made in the Soviet Union and were three times bigger than those found in the Kremlin. The monument was inaugurated by Todor Zhivkov himself where in a hole left deliberately in the building's walls, he laid a glass bottle that contained a message to the future generations, explaining the historical significance of Buzludzha. On 10th of November 1989 Zhivkov stepped down after 35 years in power. Immediately afterwards, Bulgaria's Politburo ordered the removal of his portrait from the memorial. In 1991 the monument, which still belonged to the ex-communist party, was ceded to the state and was abandoned, looted and left to self-destruct.
More than 150 communist monuments appeared across Bulgaria during the communist years, overlooking mountain lakes or rising in the hearts of cities. They stood in forests, cemeteries, parks or on the coastlines. Rich in symbolism, these structures were designed to represent ancient heroes, or to glorify the icons of Soviet ideology. One feature they all seem to share however, is their stark, brutal style and nowadays, many of Bulgaria’s communist ghosts have finally been put to rest. Of all the remains of this dead regime however, few present quite such a striking image as the spooky Mount Buzludzha monument.
