A Night at Buzludzha

Buzludzha is a historical peak in the Central Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria and is 1,432 metres high. In 1868 it was the place of the final battle between Bulgarian rebels led by Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha and the Ottoman Empire.

The House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party was built on the peak by the Bulgarian communist regime. It commemorated the events of 1891, when a group of socialists led by Dimitar Blagoev assembled secretly in the area to form an organised socialist movement that led to the founding of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Party, a forerunner of the Bulgarian Communist Party. The monument that has been abandoned for decades looks like a UFO or star ship and makes it unique or one of a kind shall I say. And what’s a better time to visit a UFO then a night?

We had reserved at a room in a mountain hut nearby. It’s called Хижа Бузлуджа Нова (Hut Buzludza Nova) and it was around 18 leva per night. The hut is really close to monument but not very well maintained. May be it’s better maintained during the peak season. We weren’t planning to spend much time in hut anyway so for us it was fine. We reached the hut around 10:30 at night. Dropped our bags in room, changed hiking clothes and shoes and came down in kitchen and had Tripe soup with a lot of chili and garlic before we had out again.

After eating, we went outside and after a small drive of 700-800 meters, we ended up at this parking and parked our car. It was complete dark so we put on our head lamps and started walking towards the monument. It wasn’t visible from there at that time so we guessed the direction. We got really lucky as it was a moonless night with clear skies and no clouds as long as you can see. Here are some of the photos!