Yet Another Strange Tourist Attraction Further East in Bulgaria

[Peter Lemkin]

Communist Party Headquarters Buzludzha Bulgaria

Nate Robert in #Bulgaria Jun 4, 2013

Buzludzha former meeting place of only the best communists in Bulgaria, now abandoned.

Good news! We've reached the sixth floor!" Apart from our motley crew of lamps that included an old Nokia cellphone screen, it was absolute darkness. It wasn't really a staircase. That's far too generous a term. More a collection of rusty steel ladders. Later, on our way back down, we timed the descent to the basement. It took twenty minutes, and it probably takes about double that time, to reach the roof of the tower component of perhaps the worlds most spectacular abandoned building the former Bulgarian Communist Party Headquarters (and urbex Mecca) known as Buzludzha.
Located atop Mount [B]Buzludzha in the geographic heart of the nation of Bulgaria, I found myself with an unlikely team of experienced urban explorers. Our members were from three nations Australia, Romania, and England. We had been planning our infiltration of Buzludzha via Facebook and email, and now it was actually happening. I had dreamed about this moment.[/B]
"How do you know what floor we're on?" I shouted out to our Romanian leader, who was now a couple of floors ahead.
"There's a six on the wall."
"How many floors are there?"
"At least six."
I laughed.
"Do you want the good news?"
"Sure."
"We're not at the top yet."
We were laughing like naughty high school kids. It was quite surreal I know I'm a long way from home now, geographically, but considering I was with a group of people I had just met, being lead in the darkness upwards through the enormous abandoned communist meeting house, I was seemingly quite a long way from reality as well.
Looking up at Buzludzha, Bulgaria's largest abandoned communist monument/meeting house/headquarters.

The view approaching Buzludzha.

Extensive mosaic work is showing severe decay inside. Some intentional, some through the ravages of time.

Incredible artwork of Buzludzha, former communist meeting hall in Bulgaria.

The mosaics of Buzludzha are large, detailed, and beginning to be lost to time.

The main hall of Buzludzha, Bulgaria.

Mosaics of Buzludzha, Bulgaria.

Decaying artworks. What a huge shame. Buzludzha, Bulgaria.

Seeing glimpses of the stunning Bulgarian countryside through the decaying concrete openings was a sight I won't soon forget.

After emerging from darkness, the glass stars put a red glow on the remaining few floors we ascended at Buzludzha.

This is inside the star that you can see at the top of the tower section. It was three or four levels high, to give you an idea of scale.

We continued on, up the ladders, and across the rusty landings, getting higher and higher. I'm not sure how many levels it was to the top maybe 12 or 14. On the way, there were plenty of strange unidentifiable noises coming from the pitch black. Bangs, clangs, metallic pings, cracking sounds. Roll calls continued intermittently, as our team spread out over two or three floors at a time. We were all looking out for each other, and it just added to the surrealism to be hearing a Romanian accent calling out "Nate! Are you still with us?" every now and then.
Of course, we made it to the top of Buzludzha, and captured the spectacular view the roof of a UFO shaped decaying concrete structure, surrounded by a pristine Bulgarian mountain-scape. I could describe the history of Buzludzha, and all of the various chambers we traversed within the grand structure. But I think in this case, the photos really do give a sense of just how ridiculously cool this place is.
I'm certainly not the first person to have visited Buzludzha. However, with the rapid amount of decay that has occurred -unfortunately -I may be among the last. It's not exactly a "safe" environment inside, and it's getting worse by the day. But apart from a few cuts, scrapes and bruises, our team had no incidents at all. Buzludzha looked after us all on this day.
When we finally exited the darkness through a hole in the concrete close to ground level (I was the last to leave), Phillipa was awaiting outside, getting to know our friendly team members. I noticed an enormous concrete "n" sitting on the ground. Just one of a collection of letters spelling out a message of communist propaganda on the walls at the now sealed entrance of Buzludzha.
"Phillipa take a photo of me sitting on this "n", it will be great to show the scale, and it's my initial as well…"
My new Romanian friend overheard what I had said, and interrupted our moment with a serious tone.
"Nate, that's not an "n", in Cyrillic, that's a "p". Please respect our language Nate."
I was unsure. "I didn't think you used the Cyrillic alphabet in Romania?"
"No.. we don't use that crazy alphabet."
I like this guy.
Yep. It was worth it. Looking down on Buzludzha.

Some people just aren't happy until they have *really* reached the top. Rusty communist-era scaffolding hmmm…

Grass was thick and lush even on the top of the tower.

Underneath the main meeting hall at Buzludzha.

Each letter is large, concrete, and heavy.

With a person in the frame, the scale of Buzludzha becomes apparent.

One of the team, Darmon is an old hand at exploring Buzludzha.

Buzludzha the perfect place to bring a small child. I'm absolutely serious, I would have killed to see things like this at his age.

One last photo at the base of Buzludzha, the greatest abandoned communist monument on Earth.

[Magda Hassan]

Wow. Looks like a UFO land base. I can see why they wanted to build on that hill because the views are so grand. And probably safe from the prying ears and eyes of the NSA. Those mosaics are so beautiful. I hope they get preserved. And wind farms too. Good to see.