buzludzha monument

The Buzluzha Monument has exactly the shape of an UFO which has landed on the peak! I was there when I was a small schoolboy and it was still functioning. The secong time I went there just out of curiosity and it was quite disappointing. I don't really remember what it was the first time - fascinating or disappointing. The road to Buzluzha is well marked (so you can't miss it) but it is very bad and not taken care of. When you go inside it looks like a site devastated by a nuclear blast but mosaics, portraying the "building of the Socialist society" still remain. I'm sure most of you know that the monument is in the ranking of "The Most Beautiful Abandoned Places of the World".

I have beed there first time last summer.Really amazing and nice view.Road is very very bad.Be careful drive and Climb up there little bit tired.

I have been going to Bulgaria for over 10 years and this is by far the best sight i have seen.We travelled there on a lovely sunny day, it is up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere and stood out high on the hill top, it was amazing to see from the road but to actually reach the peak it was an amazing site!I was determined not to enter even though my husband said he was going in but once i saw the place there was no stopping me.When i stood inside and looked around it took my breath away, it is a moment i will remember for ever, such a magical eerie feeling!My husband took some great photos inside and out - look up Tracy Ward Photography on Facebook or FlickR to see the photos!

a must see attraction with a very special vibe up in the beautiful Stara planina mountain range, a place where history and nature meet together to create a real insight into the country's history

I was there in October 2014, If you are involved in the Bulgarian History, well, you must go here! Incredible place from outside, and you can enter from an hole to see socialist art inside! At the gate there are big red words : "NEVER FORGET YOUR PAST"...If you want to know Bulgarian history this is the best place. Take a car, sleep in Shipka, and have a good trip!

If you get the chance GO. We drove up in November but snow blocked the road so we went up the grass track to the left of the road for the last 500 meters or so. When we got there a Korean man showed me the small entrance into Buzludzha which for anyone not fairly nimble and strong armed would be impossible. Once in it is amazing what was built. Google it first and you will understand how bonkers it is, and if anyone can't get in they can see it in pictures. Be carful as it is a decaying structure.

Born in Kazanlak, I've been at Hadzhi Dimitar peak (called Buzludzha in the past) many times. The area offers excellent skiing conditions for a place that is not considered a dedicated winter resort, also not having the facilities for that, so I used to go on walks with my family when I was younger. I even had the chance to once go inside, when it was still functioning, and the experience compared to being part of a sci-fi paradise in the 80's, but from some centuries ahead, ahead in time...The area is both beautiful and very peaceful, if you do not count the permanent wind. Actually this is one of the places worldwide I've visited that has constant wind, no matter what. Sometimes it is like a breeze and very pleasant but considering the nearly 6-month winter, it could be quite a pain in the cold. The mountain itself, which Bulgarians call Stara Planina/Стара Планина (Old Mountain) or simply the Balkan Mountain, is like a wall, it is very narrow so being on the peak leaves an impression that you are somewhere in the air since the view immediately opens toward the Rose Valley of Kazanlak to the south and to the Danube plain to the north.You can reach the Buzludzha monument from both south and north, depending on where you are coming from. If I were to choose, I'd choose south since the terrain is not so hilly and mountainous as the north, also with abundance of transportation options and road arteries. You can easily reach Kazanlak by car, bus or train and can spend some time in the area to explore the Thracian heritage and tombs, the Rose Festival in the beginning of June every year, the Shipka Monastery and the Liberation Monument on the Shipka peak. If coming from the north, then you can take a bus or possibly hitch-hike from Gabrovo and after on the Shipka peak, you have the option to proceed 10 more kilometers to Hadzhi Dimitar peak, or get someone to drive you there.I recommend renting a car in Kazanlak or Gabrovo (or whenever you are coming from). I know some guys take taxi-cabs (from Kazanlak for sure) but you need to arrange for them to wait for you, if you decide to go inside. There are a few functioning huts at the Buzludzha monument area so you can stay there too. One is on the south slope and also on the way to the monument. Another one is after the ski runs to the north. As far as I know there is a hotel too, which you can reach making a right turn a little after you start climbing to the peak on the south slope and before the hut. For certain, I recommend checking for the local accommodation options online before going there, there is a lot of information even in English.About the monument, a Bulgarian TV called Nova recently made a short documentary in Bulgarian, which I made English subtitles for. It is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81Z0SAYRlA. It will give you some further idea of why the monument was constructed and why it really is an amazing place worldwide. Don't judge it in the primary stereotypical way people seeing only in black and white do. After the changes in Bulgaria, started in 1989, I always wondered what really was the difference between the so called communism (which never existed anywhere on the Planet) and the upcoming capitalism/democracy. I still wonder !!!...A suggestion, if coming over the winter, or generally after October till the end of April, make sure that you either have a car nearby with full tank, your lifesaving heating source, some food and thick clothes, or you are with friends, since the fog is the other thing that is almost permanent at Buzludzha. The weather also changes within seconds from sunny into severe snow storm....

Can you imagine we didn't know about this monument beforehand? We only saw something that looked like an alien spaceship from the Shipka momument and decided, what the hell, let's drive up there and see it. I have never seen anything like this before. There's the main monument, a deserted megalomaniac building looking like a flying platter with some tower and on your way you'll encounter a memorial of two hands holding a torch. You can get inside, but take care, the building has been deserted for many years and pieces might fall from the walls and ceilings. Not the most cheerful landmark, but definitely off the beaten track and very very interesting.

The place is amazing!!! My tips to there:I went with a local to buzludzha. We catch a train to garbrovo and then a bus to shipka village. You can walk to the bus station in about 10 mins. During the walk you will pass by supermarket, which is good to stock up you food if u are planing to hike. As for water, you can always refill them at the rest house or drinking fountain next to the main road. There are some stall that serve hot snacks at the bus stations if you need any. Note: shipka and shipka village is about 20 mins drive apart. There are no bus to shipka village from gabrovo, but if u ask nicely, they will drop you there. Or another way is get off at shipka and hitch hike to the village. (Many cars bypass there to go to other cities). We stay in "shipka it hotel" (there are lots of road sign in the village of how to get there, you will never get lost). the hotel owner gave us directions to go to the head quarter. From there the hike is about 3.5 hours one way. Or you can get the owner to organise transportation for you, it's about 25lv.Because we hike up at late hours we decided to walk on the main road back to shipka instead of walking through the jungle. (Just to be safe) The walk is about 2.5 hours and there are restaurant there that serve cheap and nice food. We then hitch hike back to the hotel. Worst case get the hotel owner to pick you up for 15lv. I am not sure whether there is any accommodation at shipka. But if there are then it's better to stay there as it's much convenient to travel in and out of buzludzha. My friend told me it might be possible to stay at the shipka monument. So that might be another option if there are no accommodation at shipka. But google this because I am not too sure whether you can do that.

First things first, do not let native Bulgarians deter you from visiting Buzludzha. I was visiting the country with my Bulgarian boyfriend and literally all of his relatives were shocked that I wanted to visit this site and tried to persuade me that it was full of gypsies and drug addicts and could collapse on us at any time. But I am stubborn and we went anyways!How to get there:The closest city is Gabrovo. If you make it there but have no idea where you're going, ask for directions to the Shipka monument. If you're heading from Gabrovo toward Shipka, the road will fork. There are clearly labelled signs (go left for Buzludzha, go right for Shipka). After you turn toward Buzludzha, I think the drive was ~12 km until you reach the monument. A word of warning here, the road was really bumpy and not well taken care of, so drive slowly. There were a few side roads that almost misled us, but if you continue to follow the main road and do not turn off it, you should reach the site without getting lost. The first thing you will see is a gigantic torch monument. There are a couple turnoffs where you can park. There is also a road that leads directly to the monument, but we couldn't find it and also wanted to hike up the hill.How to get in the building:As of August 8th, 2014, the official entrances are still barricaded but the "secret entrance" is still available. If you round the corner on the right side, there is a hole in the wall a little bit above eye-level that you climb into. I have included a few pictures of this entrance to help you identify it. When you look inside, you'll see a platform, which is a staircase landing. Wiggle your body onto that landing, and you're in! Be careful because there is a pretty significant drop into the basement. There is also a metal rod sticking out on the interior where you should mind your head. We only went to the main hall because we were pressed for time, but supposedly you can also explore the basement and climb the tower.What to wear/bring:Dress in layers! When we arrived it was cold, windy, and rainy--generally unpleasant weather. After we wandered around the building interior for about half an hour and came back out, it was sunny and quite warm. I would recommend wearing pants because you have to crawl into the entrance. Bring gloves if you can because again you'll be touching things to climb around. BRING A CAMERA (because this place is awesome).

The Buzludzha monument is a unique experience. Off cause the monument is not made fore visits and its maybe also illegal to go inside, but well worth it, just be careful. The best way of getting there is to get together a group of people at the hostel and rent a car (just look out for the potholes in the road, you don't want to damage the car). Its quite easy to find the road and its supposed to med some nice opened air museum village (!?) and some monastery's one the road to get there. After the city of Gabrovo the road starts going up the mountain and when you reach a three cross with a monument (not the Buzludzha) turn left and you are on the road. Either park down by the touch monument or drive the whole way up (its a nice but a warm walk up). At the moment you get into the monument by climbing into a small hole on the right side of the build, be careful, its a deep hole directly down after you get into the building. You end up in one of the staircases leading down to the entrance hall and the wardrobe (basement level) and up to the main hall. In the entrance hall there is three staircases, under the middle one is a passages leading to the service basement and the tower. To get to the tower walk through the corridor to the broken steal door, get through the hole and you will se the staircase/ladder leading up, its a 20 min climb (70m) in total darkness so bring a well working torch! To bring with you is some warm clothing and rain gear (its on 1400m altitude so its cold and the weather can change fast). Bring a good touch, best ones are the one you have on you head (for the basement and tower). Also be aware of not touching old isolation and other lose building material that you don't recognise, it could be asbestos in it (toxic).

The drive up there is a steep climb. I am glad we drove! As you clear a wooded section of road and turn a bend suddenly Buzludzha is there right in front of your eyes and you cannot help but take a sharpe intake of breath and your brain starts to appreciate the scale of this thing that is still some distance away. We were very fortunate as it was a beautiful sunny day with just a few fluffy clouds in the sky to make the photos look nice! There is a multitude of the most delightful wildflowers growing all around the area. Many are very small alpine plants and so it is worth stopping and looking closely where your feet are going to spot them. An amazing number of butterflies around too. We did not go inside the structure. I am a bit of wimp and not as agile as I once was. Another couple with us did go in and they were blown away by what they saw inside. We were blown away by what we saw outside. This structure is awesome, haunting, stirring, formidable and a host of other things that defy my vocabulary. The roof is derelict and lets the weather in. The structure is concrete and there is much eveidence of it de-laminating. It is a crying shame that such a incredible piece of Bulgarian heritage will be lost forever but I am sad to say that I see no way that it will ever be saved. The cost of restoring it would be well beyond the capabilities of the Bulgarian government without ordinary people asking serious questions about why money is being spent on this when their roads need repairs and their hospitals need upgrading. In the mean time people continue to strip away little pieces of the structure to take as mementoes of their visit and grafitti artists add their own designs to the structure. Go and visit it soon while you still can but please.. if you feel you want a memento then do like I did - take a lot of photos and treasure the memories.

This place is definitely worthy to visit. It is easy to find by car (we hired) so unfortunately I am not sure how this place is accessible by public transport. You can park your car near monument. Main and legal entrance is closed. However, when you are facing main entrance on the right side is a small hole and you can get in. It may look difficult to go there but is not. Inside is just fascinating and you must go there. Be careful when you are driving to the monument roads are absolutely terrible with lot of pot holes!

Much better than the Shipka monument next to in and definitely worth the 20 minutes ride. In winter the monument has a great atmosphere, as there is snow inside and the wind forms strange "sculptures" out of snow and ice. The "entrance" is on the right via a small hole in the wall. Don't wear your fanciest cloths, you will get dirty when you climb in. But pay attention, the whole building is in a desolate situation, in particular when going up the tower.

I wanted to see the Buzludzha Monument after reading about it on TA. When our guide figured out what I wanted to see he said 'you will be bitterly disappointed'. Nothing could be further from the truth.I found this abandoned communist relic really interesting. The drive up from Kazanluk is very pretty through picturesque beech forests on a winding, reasonably well maintained road. As you round the bend this bizarre monument comes in to view. The highlight of our visit was our guide singing the Internationale while I filmed him and the monument as it slipped in and out of the mist.If you have any interest in Bulgaria's communist past, you should definitely insist on seeing this sight before it completely collapses. I think it is a real shame that this building is not preserved as I can see from other photos available on the internet that there are really interesting mosaics inside. I was not prepared to try to crawl in as the building is clearly deteriorating.