This immense home of the Bulgarian Communist Party had been open for only eight years before being abandoned in 1989 after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
The Bulgarian government promptly moved on and left the colossal monument to the fallen regime crumbling in the face of time.
Many in the new government want the building restored, but at a cost of nearly $20 million there is little chance that effort will come to pass, regardless of the tourists it may draw.
The BSP Socialist Party was given the building and despite securing the entrances, urban explorer Darmon Richter was able to get inside and offered us these pictures from his site The Bohemian Blog.
Richter titled the following slides himself to take BI Military & Defense readers on a personal tour of what he saw.
The House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party sits on the peak of Mount Buzludzha, visible even from the main road that passes the south side of the mountains 20km away
On reaching the peak, I came across the stone courtyard where the party faithful would have gathered for rallies. The decaying husks on either side had once been striking effigies of flames, flanking the approach to the monument.
Emblazoned around the entrance I saw the remains of rousing socialist messages - appealing to the oppressed workers to rise up, and claim the country that was theirs by right of birth
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