A brutal, concrete saucer atop a Balkan mountain that looks like the perfect headquarters for a sci-fi movie villain, and was once The House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party. Georgi Stoilov’s design, built between 1974 and 1981: a circular hall under a ring of glass, a 70-metre pylon, interior mosaics of labour and red stars glorifying both Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. It was a congress hall and a shrine; but after 1989 it was left for dead.
Conservation groups have been trying to maintain what remains; the main hall is sealed because the concrete is coming down. But even from the outside, it is a surreal, imposing structure, that sits completely juxtapose to it’s surroundings; appearing almost humanly impossible to have been built.
Photo credits: “Buzludzha Monument” by Tom Salmon, CC BY 2.0 , “Buzludzha” by Daniele De Luca, CC BY 2.0 , “IMG_3167” by glynnismorgan, CC BY-SA 2.0 , Tripadvisor
