Study in Concrete 2: The Buzludzha Memorial House, Bulgaria

Many brutalist buildings become almost mythical in their existence; magical alluring places that brutalists and urban explorers alike fantasise about visiting.

The Buzludzha Memorial House is such a prime example. I had dreamed of visiting ever since I first heard about it - on an urban exploration message forum in the heady ugly-fonted-scroll-marquee-texted days of the web.

As I was eagerly clicking around, salivating over photographs like a kid in a sweet shop, I came upon images of this huge monstrous bowl of concrete - with what looked like a block antennae protruding out from it. What crazy structure was this? It was unlike anything I had ever seen before, certainly architecturally. It resembled a large concrete spaceship. How was this real? And unlike many of these gigantic concrete blobs, it was not standing in an urban or city setting, but of all places, right on top of a mountain in the middle of the balkans. 

To understand the context and story of this beautiful and striking building, you have to go back to 1868. The historical Бузлуджа (Buzludzha) mountain is in the central Balkans, it's peak being 1,441 metres. This mountain was the scene of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels (led by the famous Bulgarian revolutionary Hadzhi Dimitar) and the forces of the Ottoman Empire in 1868. Only four Bulgarians survived their losing battle against the Ottoman troops (of which there were 700) - but in 1878, their actions provided inspiration for the Bulgarian liberation from the Ottomans.

Because of its historical importance, the Bulgarian Social Democratic Workers Party (which was later the Bulgarian Communist Party) chose the mountain site for their first congress in 1891. This was on the initiative of Dimitar Blagoev, the founder of the party. In 1944, the area also saw fighting again, this time between Communist partisans and the Bulgarian fascist forces.

The Buzludzha Memorial House concept was born as a desire to commemorate these landmark events. The peak had became a synonym for self-sacrifice and liberty, really cementing itself in Bulgarian historical importance.

A referendum in 1946 saw the Bulgarian monarchy abolished - and a single (Communist) party system was established. Many monuments were erected to champion and celebrate this victory for the Communist party. Because of its historical stature, and also as it was considered the birthplace of the socialist movement, the mountain peak at Buzludzha was regarded as highly critical to the cause. And the perfect location to celebrate the movement's victory. 

As part of these commemorations, a competition was created for four new monuments to celebrate. In 1961, these were unveiled - a statue of Hadzhi Dimitar, an engraved relief of Blagoev's 1891 Congress and a monument for the partisan forces who fought the fascists during the Second World War. The fourth monument was intended to be the most impressive of all - in grandeur and in significance. The original plan was to have a large red star - the communist symbol - erected on the mountain peak.

A young Bulgarian architect called Georgi Stoilov submitted a proposal for the fourth monument - a tower bearing the star in the centre of a ring on top of six columns. 

When Stoilov was just 15, he served with the Radomir Partisan Detachment, becoming one of Bulgaria's youngest anti-facists. He joined the Communist Party in 1949. Studying at the Moscow Architectural Institute in the 1950s, Stoilov's previous work had included the Rila hotel in Sofia, the National Centre for Air Control at Sofia Airport, the Bulgarian National Radio building and the Bulgarian Embassy buildings in various countries including Cuba.

However, Stoilov's initial proposal for Buzludzha was never materialised, and in 1971, he was asked to submit a revised proposal. Given the locality, the peak had such extreme weather conditions. With temperatures often as low as as -25 °C as well as strong winds, the new requirement specified an actual house - built with a heated interior which would be able to successfully hold events and host guests.

Stoilov went back to the drawing board, and revised his designs. This time, the new structure had a saucer-shaped body 'house' and the star featured on the conjoined tower. Further iterations saw the tower separated from the body, the positioning of the structure to provide better stability against the weather.

Georgi Stoilov was influenced by the Brutalist style, which, at the time in the 1970s was highly popular. He also personally sited influences Mies van der Rohe, Gropius and Le Corbusier. The idea was to build a timeless monument, consolidating both ancient and futuristic motifs into his design. The Roman Pantheon and the sci-fi films of the 1950s were also said to be amongst his inspirations. 

Interestingly, Stoilov believed the building construction should not be funded by the state, but by the people; it was for the people after all. The total cost of the project was estimated around 45 million pounds - this is after the costs had gone over the initial budgets when they had to fund the electricity and water etc. To raise the Bulgarian Lev required, the government took donations but also sold commemorative stamps - of which seemed to raise the majority of the funding.

Construction started in 1974. The location provided many logistical challenges for the construction of this ambitious project. The weather meant the construction could only be carried out in shifts between May and September. The huge structure needed a huge workforce. They had to build new roads to simply transport the building materials up the mountain. This included a whopping 70,000 tons of concrete, 3,000 tons of steel, and 40 tons of glass. Over 6,000 people worked on the building, including engineers, designers, sculptors, artists and labourers not to mention 500 soldiers. It is alleged many workers died during the building (although I could not find any confirmed source, possibly due to cover-ups by the government).

The tower alone took two years to build, and was such a task in itself was treated as a separate project. Attached to the north and south sides of the tower, were believed to be the largest red glass stars in the world – at 12 m (39 ft) across. They would be lit up by 32 spotlights inside the tower - aiming to be seen from as far as the Romanian border.

Inside the saucer, beautiful mosaics were created - richly detailed art pieces. These majestic mosaics illustrated "an allegorical history of the Bulgarian Communist Party". Space travel, warfare, communist workers were all scenes that were depicted.

The hall contained the mosaic faces of communist heroes with international renown - Marx, Engels and Lenin – on one side, whilst on the other - Bulgarian communist figures.

The monument, or rather memorial house, was opened in 1981, to a great fanfare and opening ceremony. Over eight million visitors came to the monument between 1981 and 1989. As well as a public museum, the monument was used for governmental purposes - award ceremonies and foreign delegations.

However, 1989 saw the fall of communism, with the party dismantled. The Buzludzha memorial house, for all its grandeur and effort of huge construction and cost, was not even open 10 years. It quickly became redundant and fell into ruin. The 1990s saw the building fall more and more into derelict decline - with features looted and destroyed. The majestic Buzludzha monument was now a majestic symbol of the death of a regime. 

Viewing the building as I did in 2017, approaching the mountain from the winding roads, you cannot help but be in awe of its sheer magnitude against the unusual countryside backdrop. My stomach fluttered with butterflies and excitement when I saw it first. Most brutalist buildings you expect to see in urban environments. The concrete 'saucer' distinctive in its unified rigid geometric form (you can see why it is nicknamed 'the UFO'). The block tower typical of the brutalist straight lines - counter-acting the bowl of large scale concrete. Yet all on top of a mountain. The glass red star twinkled brightly - catching the sun, needing no such spotlights as originally planned.

The car journey from Sofia takes hours, but your first glimpse of the memorial house is miles out - this is how mammoth the concrete saucer is. You fully start to appreciate why it was built where it was - a complete message from the Communist party - of dominance, of power. 

Stood beneath this wonderful structure, you feel like bowing down to this majesty of concrete. Hyperbolic as it sounds, it is like a King looking over its kingdom, and you just feel a minnow of insignificance beneath it. 

In a way, aside from the graffiti art that adorns its walls, it doesn't look that different to the day it was opened. Grass and moss are beginning to creep through the stairs leading up to the building. But look closer and the cracks grow larger and larger, as if you brush off the initial facade to reveal the decay within. Huge concrete block lettering attach to the (now boarded up) doorway - strong and sturdy looking, are now beginning to crumble - and some have been stolen or fallen off.

Inside, the decay and rot ironically comes alive, as if the inside is beginning to eat itself out. The roof is perilously holding together on a tight rope - and surely will crumble any time soon unless efforts are made to rescue it. Dare to sneeze or breath too loud, for fear the sky will fall in on you. The impressive ceiling decoration of the hammer and sickle will soon become nothing but a congealed mess with the rest of the decay on the floor. A true symbol of the fall of communism. The beautiful mosaics are slowly dismantling; the famous communist scenes and emblems now missing in parts, as if censored and disjointed. It is quite the sight.

The dangerous yet incredible ceiling from inside

I did not want to leave Buzludzha. Fortune favoured me, as I visited on a beautiful hot October day and was instantly in love with the wonderful landscape sprawled out in 360 degrees of endless blue sky and scenery. The crisp and perfectly formed concrete looked perfect against the backdrop. It had not failed my expectations, for it is strange, idiosyncratic and a little unsettling, but peaceful and stoically stunning. It is a beautiful and unique place. So so unique. I kept thinking it was akin to building a huge Welsh Assembly building on top of Pen Y Fan in the Brecon beacons. The audacity of the project was so outrageous. And yet it had been done.

As I headed back to Sofia, I kept thinking and hoping the monument would be rescued, would be saved, and it seems this may now be the case - the structure now has strict 24hr security and plans seem to be in place to make the monument a permanent museum again. We can but hope - the mosaics alone need to be preserved, as does the magnificent ceiling roof, so that generations in the future can continue to enjoy this wonderful building.

'He who falls while fighting to be free

can never die: for him the sky and earth, 

the trees and beasts shall keen, 

to him the minstrel's song shall rise…' 

Hristo Botev: the poem "Hadzhi Dimitar"

Photo album of some images I took at Buzludzha