You've been warned.Īccess difficulty: High, next to impossible.Īmong other things, Communism was about industrialisation. If you dare do it, do bring a hard hat and a rope, and never go alone. However, photographers always find a way in. Today, as the monument's roof is collapsing, access to the inside of the building is banned. They wandered around its ruins, and spread the word via the emerging medium of the Internet. In the 2000s, photographers and adventure seekers discovered the abandoned monument. As economic crisis followed economic crisis and unemployment surged, people robbed the Buzludzha monument of everything that could be sold for even a tiny profit. The monument had an interior to match, with plush furniture and expensive artwork, including propaganda mosaics by the best artists of the day.Īfter the collapse of Communism, in 1989, the building quickly lost its glory: there was no longer a party to claim the place as its own. It was decorated with 12 -мetre-tall red stars. 70- мetre-tall concrete pillar rose next to it. Its circular assembly hall had a diameter of 42 metres and was 14.5 metres high. The massive structure was visible from afar. The memorial was built in 1981 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Socialist movement in Bulgaria. Ironically, until the collapse of Communism, Buzludzha was a powerful symbol of the party's supposedly eternal grip over the nation.īuzludzha's interior was accessible until recently, but is now sealed off for safety reasons That is why so many old industrial sites in Bulgaria are disintegrating, instead of being redesigned as museums or expensive lofts.Ĭommunist Party House and Memorial, Buzludzhaīulgaria's best known urbex site is the abandoned house and monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party on Mount Buzludzha, in the Stara Planina mountains. They were also abandoned after 1989, mostly because no-one had the money, the imagination or the ability to use them in any meaningful way. These are industrial and infrastructure sites that were built on the cusp of the 20th century, and were used or repurposed during Communism. Part of Bulgaria's urbex heritage, however, belongs to an earlier era. Many of these once glorious projects became redundant, and were abandoned. After 1989, however, Communism collapsed, and so did the planned economy. At the time of their construction, they were ambitious projects that underpinned the power of the totalitarian regime and the virtues of its planned economy. Most were built under Communism: factories, farm cooperatives, mines, tunnels, party houses, monuments. The country is a fertile ground for the exploration of 20th century ruins. ![]() Urbex, or urban exploration, is the name of a current movement concerned with modern ruins, and Bulgaria is one of its star destinations. ![]() They are often the perfect setting for a mood photo. Besides their philosophical side, modern ruins have an aesthetic one, too. Who were these people? What did they experience there? Such places remind us of the fragility of our own civilisation. When walking around spaces that were abandoned mere decades before, we begin to reflect on the people – almost our contemporaries – who used to live and work there, and who then left, leaving behind a soiled rag here, a rusty bed or a desecrated image of a once powerful party leader there. They simultaneously frighten, disgust and enchant. Not much else to say, watch it for yourself.Yet the sombre aura of desolation and utter despair exuded by modern ruins can be evocative. Extending that to corporate private property, infiltrating any place that noticeably (read permanently) affects us as a community or society is logical.” Anything funded or maintained by tax money belongs to us and we should be able to use it as we like as long as we don’t permanently damage it or cause harm to the citizen body. “We have a right to explore public infrastructure. ![]() Talk with Bradley Garrett held on Wednesday 24 October at Caroline of Brunswick during BPB12īradley Garrett discusses the motives and politics behind urban exploration. ![]() The first in a series of short documentaries focusing on the culture of Urban Exploring, those who risk it all to access and infiltrate closed or forgotten spaces.
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