The SearchVoat Forum

“National and socialistic freedom”

Located in the mountains in the heart of Bulgaria, the Buzludzha Monument is an imposing example of 20th-century Modernist architecture. The building now attracts increasing international attention. Built in 1981 to be the House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party, the structure was used for just 8 years. Soon after the end of the Communist regime, the monument was abandoned and has since been victim to thefts, vandalism and severe weather conditions. The ostentatious finish of its Brutalist architecture, heavy iconography and colourful mosaics has decayed. No action has been taken by the responsible authorities to protect the site so far. The Buzludzha Project Foundation... made the nomination for the 7 Most Endangered programme 2018...

In 1990, the Bulgarian Communist Party set up an inquiry commission into the camps. It found that between 1944 and 1962 there were approximately 100 forced labor camps in a country of 8 million inhabitants. Between 1944 and 1953, some 12,000 men and women passed through these camps, with an additional 5,000 between 1956 and 1962. According to one witness, Belene alone held 7,000 in 1952. Another estimates a total of 186,000 prisoners during this period. Definitive figures remain elusive.[1]

Buzludzha was the symbolic ritual hall of a timeless society: an intergalactic pantheon with its roots in antiquity and its future reaching onwards to the stars