WILL BULGARIA'S 'FLYING SAUCER' LIFT OFF?

When she saw Bulgaria's "Flying Saucer," the bizarre-looking monument on top of the summit of Buzludzha in the Stara Planina mountain range, Dora Ivanova was 12. A native of Montana, formerly named Mihaylovgrad (after a local Communist functionary), she was taken to the nearby Freedom Monument at Shipka Pass and the set of monuments commemorating the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War by her parents. She saw the oddly-shaped Memorial House of the Bulgarian Communist Party, as its official name was, from a far distance. Her parents never bothered to do the steep drive up the mountain.

Fast forward 23 years. Dora Ivanova, who was born in 1990 and so has no immediate memories of life under Communism, is already a graduate of architecture at the Technical University of Berlin. A German colleague told her there was this strange building in Bulgaria and everyone wanted to go there and take a selfie inside. Dora saw pictures online and decided that this will be her master thesis topic. She made the arduous trip on bad Communist-era roads up the mountain. That was in 2014.

photography by Mariana Stoichkova

Standing in front of the Flying Saucer, she was stunned. The building, in the best (or worst) traditions of brutalism, evoked both solemnity and fear. Its dimensions were supposed to make everyone feel small and insignificant. It meant to denigrate both reason and rhyme in praise of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of Bulgaria because that party was supposed to be eternal and reign supreme. According to its propaganda, it was the natural offspring of all revolutions against foreign and domestic oppressors through the centuries, an apotheosis of the people's will to create a classless society where everyone would be given according to their needs and everyone would contribute in keeping with their abilities.

Trouble was, Communism had ceased to exist 25 years years previously. What was supposed to be a megalomaniacal materialisation of the Communist ideology was now abandoned and lay in ruins. The huge stone letters spelling passages from the Communist Manifesto at the entrance were crooked and falling apart. The entrance was bolted. Things were falling down from the huge pylon whose five-pointed star of red glass was smashed. You could see through the roof where the only inhabitants were the omnipresent Stara Planina black swallows. So, Dora wondered, why has this building, with all its imposing architecture, been left to the elements? Could its potential be unfolded?

photography by Mariana Stoichkova

It was there and at that time that Dora Ivanova made a decision that changed her life. The Buzludzha monument had to be vivified. The building could be made safe for visitors and then used for various cultural, historical and educational functions. Obviously, its original purpose – to extol the virtues of Communism – was inappropriate . But rethinking the bizarre shapes and volumes, the sheer amount of concrete and the huge inside decorations in the form of mosaics, could make the Buzludzha Flying Saucer a one-of-a-kind site that would attract visitors from all over the world and thus revitalise the sagging local economy.

Dora Ivanova's ideas were concrete, specific and well articulated. In addition to preserving what remained of the main building and making it safe, Dora Ivanova wanted to make the Buzludzha memorial "reused" as a community and contemporary arts centre to critically discuss and educate about recent history. It may be controversial, contentious and often traumatic, but it is very important to take it in because it directly influences present-day decisionmaking and life in general. Buzludzha was just the right place for this because it was instantly recognisable in Bulgaria and, increasingly, worldwide. One direct effect of the process would be to discern truth from propaganda, an effort that requires not only critical thinking but familiarity with at times very complex backgrounds. The possibilities, Dora Ivanova reasoned, could be expanded. Previously, no one was able to go all the way up to the top of the pylon. Modernising the elevators could bring visitors to a 360-degree panoramic view of the Stara Planina mountain range as well as large areas of both southern and northern Bulgaria, easily a highlight of any visit to the summit.

photography by Nikifor Haralampiev

When Dora Ivanova made that first visit to Mount Buzludzha she was not alone. Dozens of Bulgarian and foreign visitors made the trip and stood in stupefaction on the lawn in front. All of them were disappointed, recalls Dora. Disappointed because they could not enter the monument, because nothing was going on in or around it, because an enormous human effort is just left to the elements. They were disappointed because the various Bulgarian government agencies had let what would be listed as a monument of culture of national significance deteriorate into macabre dilapidation.

Last but not least, Dora Ivanova felt a successful endeavour to revitalise Buzludzha could serve as a precursor for similar architectural and engineering projects to make sustainable other derelict or badly preserved cultural heritage sites that account for as many as 85 percent of all heritage in this country.

So, Dora Ivanova set up an NGO locally and started a search for like-minded individuals and organisations. She was quick to reach to the German branch of Icomos, the International Council of Monuments and Sites. Europa Nostra, Europe's largest organisation in charge of cultural heritage, followed.

The Getty Foundation in Los Angeles was the first funder. Its grant was used to draft a conservation management plan. The Technical University of Munich, the Bern University of Arts in Switzerland as well the Bulgarian National Academy of Art followed suit. The Kazanlak Municipality and the Regional Administration of Stara Zagora endorsed the project and supported it, so did the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture.

photography by Dora Ivanova

Obviously, a polemical site like Buzludzha can attract not only admirers but also critics. According to Dora Ivanova, the most virulent opponents of what she does are people who think the purpose of this is to bring the Buzludzha monument to its former Communist-era glory and symbolism. Communicating the value of preserving dissonant heritage to Bulgarians has turned out to be surprisingly arduous.

Dora Ivanova managed to trump up both financial and manpower support from a significant number of organisations, corporations, private companies and NGOs. An international workforce of volunteers descended on the site and began the works. Over a million leva was fundraised and invested in the monument over the last years. The mosaics in the building were stabilized, while a number of areas inside the building were rendered safe for visits. The Flying Saucer was planned to open in 2023.

It didn't. In late 2023 the local administration cut off access for Dora and her teams inside the building, citing safety concerns. In actual fact, the Stara Zagora bureaucrats created one of those typical Bulgarian Catch 22 situations: the people, who were supposed to ensure safety were unable to do that for... safety reasons. The current situation, which Dora Ivanova describes as an emergency, threatens to derail the project she started in earnest. Left to the elements without supervision, the protective measures and shelters installed over the stabilized mosaics have started to fall into disrepair, endangering the mosaics once again. The temporary safe walkways set up by Dora Ivanova's team were built for a five-year horizon until the new roof is set. Now two winters have gone and no one was allowed to use them. In all, a little Bulgarian bureaucracy can jeopardise many years of hard international labour.

In the meantime, Dora Ivanova continues with the activities she started alongside the main task of persevering Buzludzha. The fourth Open Buzludzha music and arts festival takes place in front of the Flying Saucer on 8-11 August as scheduled. Various conferences and discussions focusing on endangered heritage take place throughout the year. But the main task, opening up the Buzludzha Flying Saucer, is put on hold until the various agencies of the Bulgarian state get their act together. When this will happen is as good a guess as any.