Budzludza

I was at a restaurant with other volunteers during MSC, when Neysa comes over and tells me she just met a British woman in the bathroom who will take us to the spaceship on Friday. I nearly fell over laughing. I’ve heard some strange things, but this was an easy top 5. The spaceship she was referring to is actually Buzludzha, an old communist meeting place off the Shipka pass. 


Sitting above tree line on a peak (4,728 ft) in the middle of a nature reserve and shaped like a flying saucer with an unconnected tower, Buzludzha resembles a spaceship. It is not open for visitors, but is also not fenced in nor are there signs forbidding entry. This website has history of the building and more pictures.

Construction of Buzludzha was completed in 1981. It was unveiled on the 1300th anniversary of the creation of the first Bulgarian state. 90 years after the secret meeting that started organized socialist movement in Bulgaria was held on the mountain.

After our last MSC breakfast, we met the British woman and her husband under the clock tower in Tryavna. Buzludzha is about an hour’s drive away. We didn’t realize a road leads directly to it and parked in a turn-off beneath a large monument down the mountain. Then hiked the steep stone path up the mountain.


When we reached the building, there was a herd of horses, blocking the main entrance. We walked around looking for another way in. Not finding one, we returned to the building’s front and tried to think of ways to make the horses move.

Very large herd of horses. The graffiti above the door reads "FORGET YOUR PAST."

We’d been staring and making noises at the horses for about 20 minutes when a car drove up. A young Bulgarian couple with their dog got out. The man had been inside before and told us the entrance was actually through a dark creepy room on one side we’d passed by. He must have though us quite a site, sweating from our hike up the mountain, attempting to move a 40 wild horses from a locked door by clapping and whistling, stumbling back whenever one of the horses turned too look at us. We followed them through a dark room with metal door that had been bent backwards leaving just enough space for a person to climb through.

The passageway we stepped down into led to the downstairs hall of Buzludzha. Red felt hung sporadically from the walls and broken concrete was everywhere. 

Despite being in a pretty sorry state of destruction, the acoustics of the room were perfect. Standing in the middle, you could feel your voice reverberate around the room when speaking.

 The ceiling reads: “Proletariat of every country, unite!”

 The windows are blown out and the exterior murals destroyed.

The interior walls are also covered with murals, many of which have been destroyed. The face of Todor Zhivkov, the communist leader in Bulgaria for 35 year's, has been completely removed in the one below. 

What it used to look like: 

I took the pictures of the old Buzludzha from www.Budludja.com.