Some years ago, during a trip in Bulgaria to the quaint area of Veliko Tarnovo and Arbanasi, we decided to explore the strange monument in Buzludzha, also known as the Buzludzha UFO, which had been for a while on our “to photo-trot” list.

To get here, from Veliko Tarnovo follow the road to Gabrovo and from there on through the Shipka pass, which offers a nice scenic drive across the Balkans. Circumnavigate the crowd of tourists checking out the Shipka monument (remembering the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish war) and 12 km later, there you are.

Aim for the giant concrete UFO perched on top of a mountain peak.

When we went there (in 2011, the road from Shipka was in derelict condition, more potholes than asphalt). However, all the frustration from the drive went away when we got out of the forest and the monument became visible, on the bare top of Hadzhi Dimitar peak.

The futuristic Buzludzha monument was built to commemorate the beginnings of socialism in Bulgaria (creation of the forerunner of the Bulgarian Communist Party by Dimitar Blagoev in 1891). They started it in mid-70s and it was completed in 1981.

Why there?

The reason behind placing the memorial on top of a mountain was that on that peak (formerly known as Buzludzha, meaning “icy“ in Turkish), the revolutionary Hadzhi Dimitar (he had received the hajji surname after visiting Jerusalem) tried to fight off the Ottomans along with a band of guerrilla fighters, a struggle doomed from the beginning, since the liberationists were a handful of people, while the Ottomans ten times as abundant. The Bulgarians were decimated and Dimitar mortally wounded. He remained a hero and commemorations were held annually on that peak (named after him mid-20th century).

During such a ceremony, in August 1891, the communist forefather Dimitar Blagoev chose to hold the first meeting of what was to become the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, because everybody was so busy with Hadzhi Dimitar’s commemoration, that nobody would pay attention to the group of 20 men holding in secret the first communist congress in Bulgaria.

With the collapse of communism after 1991, the responsibility for its maintenance was passed around like a hot potato among the government, the local prefecture and the town hall of Stara Zagora, until nobody took care of it any longer, not even the Socialist Party, hence the advanced state of degradation we found there in 2011 (less visible on the outside, but very apparent on the inside).

Officially you could not enter the premises, but unofficially, a keen eye could see a gaping hole somewhere on the side, through which you could slip inside and nimbly land on a pile of stones placed there by considerate visitors.

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The Buzludzha monument interior is still impressive: the central dome is 15 meters high, and on it you can still see the sickle and the hammer, as well as the inscription, well-known throughout the Communist countries, "Proletarians of all countries, unite!"

The mosaics are also interesting: the portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin are still in pretty good condition, but from the group Dimitar Blagoev - Georgi Dimitrov - Todor Zhivkov, the latter was completely scraped off with revolutionary momentum, immediately after the fall of communism, back in the early ‘90s.

While now it’s still not possible to casually stroll inside, because it is deemed dangerous to the public, efforts are being made to keep it alive. A team of architects and conservationists recently tested and found that the building is still structurally sound and hopefully will try to revive it sometime in the future.

Check out more images in the Buzludzha photo gallery or in the slideshow: