I give you … the Buzludzha monument. Described as “a cross between a flying saucer and Doctor Evil’s hideout perched atop a glorious mountain range.”
“Buzludha is Bulgaria’s largest ideological monument to Communism. Designed by architect Guéorguy Stoilov, more than 6000 workers were involved in its 7 year construction including 20 leading Bulgarian artists who worked for 18 months on the interior decoration. A small, universally expected donation from every citizen in the country formed a large portion of the funds required to build this impressive structure that was finally unveiled in 1981 on what was the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state.”
Man, they just don’t make totalitarian dictatorships like they used to. Even that young whippersnapper in North Korea is already proving a disappointment entertainmentwise.
Great post! What a totally weird building! Does anybody know the name of the gigantic palace that Roumanian dictator/madman (Ceaucescue) was building in Bucharest, around the time he got overthrown?
It was using up most of the Roumanian prodction of concrete, and it was (just like Buzludzsha) fantastically bizarre and ugly.
Somehow I see this featured on a future episode of House Hunters International as a “fixer-upper” and it will be bought by a young couple from Milwaukee who want to use it as a yoga studio/hunting lodge.
I wonder how many Bulgarians dies stripping the copper off the roof?
What a stupid waste of meoney.
But its not as bad as most Communist-Era dreck archictecture-it looks a lot nicer than most of the stuff that Stalin commissioned.