The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party (), also known as the Buzludzha Monument (), was built on
Buzludzha Peak in central
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
by the Bulgarian communist government and inaugurated in 1981. It commemorated the events of 1891, when a group of socialists led by
Dimitar Blagoev assembled secretly in the area to form an organized socialist movement that led to the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, a forerunner of the
Bulgarian Communist Party
The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP; bg, Българска Комунистическа Партия (БКП), Balgarska komunisticheska partiya (BKP)) was the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 198 ...
(itself a forerunner of the current
Bulgarian Socialist Party).
Construction
Construction of the monument began on 23 January 1974 under architect Georgi Stoilov, a former mayor of Sofia and co-founder of the Union of Architects in Bulgaria.
The peak was leveled into a stable foundation using
TNT
Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
, reducing the mountain's height from to .
Over 15,000 cubic metres of rock were removed in the process.
The monument was built at a cost of 14,186,000
leva
Leva may refer to:
* Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian currency
* ''Leva'' (grasshopper), a genus of insects
* Levice
Levice (; hu, Léva, Hungarian pronunciation: ; german: Lewenz, literally lionesses) is a town in western Slovakia. The town lies o ...
, equivalent to US$35 million today.
The monument exemplifies the
futurist architecture
Futurist architecture is an early-20th century form of architecture born in Italy, characterized by long dynamic lines, suggesting speed, motion, urgency and lyricism: it was a part of Futurism, an artistic movement founded by the poet Filippo To ...
common to many state-constructed communist buildings. All maintenance ended with the fall of communism in 1989, and the building remains closed to the public due to the hazards of the weakened structure.
The Buzludzha Project has helped to begin work on the monument's preservation, with the eventual aim of creating an
interpretation center for Bulgarian history.
Mosaics
Inside the building, mosaics commemorating the history of the Bulgarian Communist Party cover approximately 937 square meters; 35 tons of cobalt glass were used in their manufacture. One-fifth of the mosaics have already been destroyed due to age, weather-related deterioration and vandalism.
Mosaics on the outer ring of the monument were built with natural stones gathered from rivers across Bulgaria; these mosaics have mostly vanished due to
natural wear.
The building's main ceiling mosaic features the communist
hammer and sickle encircled with a ''
Communist Manifesto'' quote, "Proletarians of all countries, unite!"
Opening ceremony
The monument was opened on 23 August 1981. At the opening ceremony, Bulgarian communist leader
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( bg, Тодор Христов Живков ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 ...
announced:
In popular culture
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Haloo Helsinki!
Haloo Helsinki! ( en, Hello, Helsinki!) is a pop rock band from Finland, founded in 2006. They have released five studio albums, all of which have reached the top ten on the Finnish Albums Chart. From 2007 to 2012, the band were signed to EMI Fi ...
shot the entirety of the
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...
for their 2014 single "Vihaan kyllästynyt" at the monument; Dutch rock band
Kensington's 2015 "Riddles" music video was likewise entirely filmed on location there. The closing sequence of
Rita Ora
Rita Sahatçiu Ora (born Rita Sahatçiu; 26 November 1990) is a British singer and songwriter. She rose to prominence in February 2012 when she featured on DJ Fresh's single, "Hot Right Now", which reached number one in the UK. Her debut stud ...
's ''
Bang
Bang or bangs may refer to:
Products
* M1922 Bang rifle, a US semi-automatic rifle designed by Søren Hansen Bang
* Bang, a model car brand
* Bang (beverage), an energy drink
Geography
* Bang, Lorestan, a village in Iran
* Bangs, Ohio, Uni ...
''
EP video was shot at the monument in early 2021.
The site was used as a filming location for the 2016 action movie ''
Mechanic: Resurrection''; special effects were added to show the structure next to a shoreline, with a
helipad added to the top of the saucer building.
The monument is visited by the main protagonist in the 2018 comedy film ''
I Feel Good''.
The 2019 opera ''Frankenstein'' by
Mark Grey
Mark Grey is an American classical music composer, sound designer and sound engineer.
Career
Mark Grey attended San Jose State University in California, where he studied electroacoustic music and composition with Pablo Furman and Allen Stran ...
appears to take place inside the Buzludzha Monument.
Travel
Buzludzha can be reached by two side roads from the
Shipka Pass
Shipka Pass ( bg, Шипченски проход, ) (el. 1150 m./3820 ft.) is a scenic mountain pass through the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria. It marks the border between Stara Zagora province and Gabrovo province. The pass connects the t ...
, either a road from
Kazanlak
Kazanlak ( bg, Казанлък , Thracian and Greek Σευθόπολις (''Seuthopolis''), tr, Kazanlık) is a Bulgarian town in Stara Zagora Province, located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan mountai ...
in the south or a road from
Gabrovo
Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province.
It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an internatio ...
on the north side of the mountain.
Preservation
Multiple initiatives to preserve the monument had been undertaken throughout the years, most of them political and associated with the
Bulgarian Socialist Party. In 2018, the monument was recognized by
Europa Nostra
Europa Nostra (Italian for "Our Europe") is a pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement to relevant inte ...
as one of the seven most endangered heritage sites in Europe. The most recent preservation works started in 2019 under the Buzludzha Project Foundation, in collaboration with
ICOMOS
The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; french: links=no, Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the worl ...
Germany and the municipality of
Stara Zagora. Together they were able to secure a $185,000
Getty Foundation
The Getty Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California at the Getty Center, awards grants for "the understanding and preservation of the visual arts".Getty FoundationAbout the Foundation. Retrieved September 18, 2008. In the past, it funded the ...
grant to establish a Conservation Management Plan for the monument. Early results indicated that the building could be preserved and used, leading to a second Getty grant in July 2020 to stabilize surviving mosaic panels. Conservation and preservation efforts are ongoing.
File:Бузлуджа IMG6338.jpg, View from below
File:Bouzloudja02.jpg, Dome
File:Buzludzha Monument Auditorium.jpg, Auditorium
File:Buzludzha-03.JPG, Torch monument
File:Buzludzha vatre.jpg, From left to right, mosaics of Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels ( ,["Engels"](_blank)
'' Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
File:Buzludzha & Torch Monument.jpg, Torch and Buzludzha monuments
See also
*
Bulgarka Nature Park
The Bulgarka Natural Park ( Bulgarian: Природен парк ″Българка″) is a Bulgarian nature park on the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains (Stara Planina), occupying 22,000 hectares of territory in the central and eastern ...
References
External links
The Buzludzha Monument Archive
Website dedicated to the preservation of Buzludzha Monument Website dedicated to the archive Buzludzha Monument
Published in 2019
* The Economist
Buzludzha: A crumbling reminder of communism Published on Oct 20, 2014.
Bulgaria’s crumbling ode to socialism BBC News, July 26, 2018.
Podcast About Buzludzha Monument's Current State and Plans To Turn It Into A Museum Featuring Bulgarian Architect Dora Ivanova
Buzludzha 3D
Bibliography
Adrien Minard, ''Bouzloudja. Crépuscule d'une utopie'', Paris, éditions B2, 2018.
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Monuments and memorials in Bulgaria
Buildings and structures in Stara Zagora Province
Futurist architecture
7 Most Endangered Programme
1981 establishments in Bulgaria
Buildings and structures completed in 1981