Icebound, long-abandoned Communist flying saucer in the cliffs of Bulgaria

Timothy sez, "This is a link to some photos I have took of Buzludzha (pronounced Buz'ol'ja) a very remote building in the Balkan Mountains. It is Bulgaria's largest monument to Communism which was left to ruin after the revolution in 1989. An incredible 70 metre tall, 1970's 'flying saucer' perched precariously in the snow on a ridge at 1500m. Full of beautiful communist mosaic frescos and an amazing central atrium complete with giant golden hammer and sickle. It took 6000 workers 7 years to build. I managed to fly over it in a microlight in mid winter to get some interesting pictures too. Such an amazing place."

Forget Your Past (Thanks, Timothy!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: bulgaria • happy mutants • Old school • photos • sovkitsch • urban exploration • Weird

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Flashman

In a few, very specific, areas, totalitarianism is awesome.
- IsoTop
  
  Unless you lived in such regime. (Or read 1984)
ultranaut

I want to live in the secret lair underneath.
miasm

hmm, with suitable renovations, this might be an appropriate venue for TED 2023.
http://twitter.com/itsme__Bender kambo

It’s awesome but it’s falling appart for 22 years now. It’s too remote to be used for anything, just bringing materials up there for renovations will cost too much to be worth it.
- http://twitter.com/bazimmerman Brad Zimmerman
  
  For some reason I agree with you, handsome.
http://twitter.com/IvaneBe Ivan Dimitrov

@twitter-97954989:disqus on the contrary, there is a road leading to it. Once restored it can be used for concerts, parties, exhibitions or made into a giant mall.
- TWX
  
  There’s a certain irony, suggesting taking what was arguably a religious icon of economic communism and turning it into a religious icon of economic capitalism…
  - http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose
    
    I vote for an indoor “6 Flags Over Bulgaria” theme park.
http://dir.uk4net.com/ alex

its very nice country, you know
morkl

In a couple of hundred years, these buildings will be the equivalent of the ancient jungle cities of India or Mexico. Explorers will discover them and be amazed by the wonders of this long lost civilization.
- http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios
  
  That thing will be dust in a couple of hundred years.
Daneel

Watch out for Blofeld’s Angels of Death!
- gorfulator
  
  I was thinking it looked 60′s James bond-esque
  
  Pinewood studios east!
Tami Chase

It looks like the Russian’s lair from the movie Spies Like Us :D
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=689613728 Daryl Smith

A couple of HDR images of the building here:
http://www.chromasia.com/galleries/1010270626.php
http://www.chromasia.com/galleries/1011011600.php
planettom

I feel like this is a level in a First Person Shooter game I played.

Or that one level in the movie INCEPTION.
niktemadur

Pictures of this place were floating around photoblogs a few months ago. Looking awesomely bleak in the snow, it strikes me as a lost opportunity for great Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos, this would have been an ideal setting for a sequence in his epic “Ulysses’ Gaze”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_Gaze
xkot

Any Bulgarians reading this: please, PLEASE call UNESCO immediately!
Eat Bacon

Looks like it belongs on Hoth
TWX

This may be a dumb question, but am I simply not seeing equivalent grandiose monuments dedicated specifically to the ideology of revolution in democratic or capitalist nations that are somehow state-sponsored?

I know there’s Mount Rushmore, and there are some fairly impressive structures in Washington DC. I can’t, off the top of my head, think of any others in the United States outside of the purpose-built capitol city. It seems like the Communists and Facists both have always gone crazy building megastructures to celebrate themselves or their ideologies, even though the ideologies don’t seem to last.
- Luciano Medina
  
  The Statue of Liberty.
  - HahTse
    
    Every skyscraper ever.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Every Olympic stadium ever.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/3ZR33BD3NW3PIIL4ARGNGK23BA JB
  
  Vincennces, Indiana – Conquest of the West monument is the only monument of its kind out side of D.C.
  
  http://www.nps.gov/gero/historyculture/memorial.htm
sean

God, it’s strange and beautiful. Like something from a future that never occurred.
http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

Join me there at 10pm for a game of Quintet
Brad H.

Wow, looks incredible with the frost. I hope to be that way next year. I’ll take some halva and lukanka up there and have a picnic in the middle of it.
altaylor

When they got it into their head and unlimbered the rubber truncheons, commies could really pull off the gigantic edifice, massive dam, or huge underground military lair.

But all things decay. That’s why the intrepid photogs at English-Russia have some of the best photo essays of mouldering Soviet stuff ever. Love that site
http://twitter.com/bingofuel Adam Rozenhart

Crazy, I have a colleague at work from Bulgaria. When I emailed her the link to this post, she responded: “Hahaha – This is where I was born. My town is 20 km from that place. We used to play there a lot as kids:) ”