Concrete UFO spotted on Bulgarian mountain pass

If someone had told me I’d be dancing with a group of Romanian tourists in front of a concrete UFO on a Bulgarian mountain pass, I wouldn’t have believed them. But such is the random magic of travel.

It took four hours of driving from Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, to reach the The Monument House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, also known as The Buzludzha Monument, perched on top of the Buzludzha peak in the Balkan mountains. The site – seemingly in the middle of nowhere – is actually of great significance, being the location of three key events in Bulgarian history, most importantly the foundation of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party in 1891.

Ninety years later (almost to the day), in August 1981, The Buzludzha Monument opened after more than eight years of construction involving some 6,000 people, including labourers, engineers and sixty artists. Designed by architect Georgi Stoilov, it was influenced by 1950s sci-fi films and western Brutalist architecture – pretty much a dream combination.

At the opening ceremony, the building looked stunning; its halls were made of white marble, its interior walls were decorated with richly-detailed mosaics depicting communist heroes and a history of the Bulgarian Communist Party. Millions of people would visit the monument throughout the decade, but in 1989, with the fall of the Socialist government, the structure was soon forgotten and fell into disrepair.

Looting, vandalism and the harsh natural elements combined to make the structure unsafe but in recent years, thanks perhaps to the internet’s obsession with brutalism, communist architecture and abandoned buildings, it’s become popular as an iconic site to visit. The last few years there has been much talk of restoring the building, so let’s hope something starts soon before it collapses.

The clouds moved so fast on top of the mountain, the wind whistled through my clothes. Swallows swooped and sang around the structure. The monument was imposing, remote, surreal and sad, but strangely calming and uplifting. I had been wanting to visit it for several years.

Oh, the dancing? A group of Romanian tourists turned up in a bus and decided to celebrate by dancing in a circle, all holding hands. I started to video them until they persuaded me to join in.

Oh, some obligatory infrared photos of the monument: