The Abandoned Monument
The once prized monument, located on Mount Buzludzha, is the biggest ideological building in Bulgaria. It was built as tribute to the creation of the Bulgarian socialist movement in 1981. The UFO-shaped structure served as the congregation hall for the new Bulgarian state. After the failure of the Bulgarian totalitarian state in 1989, the building was permanently closed.
Abandoned and derelict from neglect, the last 20 years have not been kind to the monument. Thoroughly vandalized, stripped of its mosaics and bronze ornaments and strewn with graffiti, the building still stands, awaiting to be returned to its former glory. In 2012 the Bulgarian cabinet transferred the property to the Bulgarian Socialist Party, which has shown little incentive to restore the monument.
