As the Soviet Union began to collapse in 1989, Bulgaria entered a new, challenging phase of its development. While the Bulgarian state eventually abandoned communist ideologies for more market-oriented practices, their memory remains in the form of abandoned infrastructure.
These spectral structures stoke the imagination of many, one such person being Bulgarian photographer Hristo Uzunov. From his home base in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, Uzunov has spent two years drawing out what he calls “The Abandoned Bulgaria” through photos, traveling to more than twenty of these deserted locations to capture their existence, perhaps to remind the nation of its past as knowledge of it recedes from memory.
The first Bulgarian locomotives were produced at this site in 1948.
History vanishes as abandoned buildings are overtaken by the elements.
Abandoned structures are an eerie monument to the villages and families that once lived in these mountains.
A rusting KrAZ 256 hopper at the Ardino marble quarry
An Antov An-2 forever grounded at the Museum of Aviation in the village of Krumovo.
Even the walkway tunnels underneath the monument are adorned with the Soviet Star. When communism left the Soviet Republic, most (if not all) vestiges to that time were left to crumble.
The town of Kardzhali is now home to nothing other than homeless dogs.
An old T-130 bulldozer that was used to quarry marble in the town of Ardino sits frozen in time.
The Rhodope Mountains are home to many small villages, most of which have been abandoned.
Industrial skeletons strewn across the Bulgarian landscape remind us that no ideology is immune from time.
An abandoned train car sits rusted and motionless at the Kardzhali train station.
The train plant was built in 1888, and abandoned in 2003.
Many buildings at the train plant in Sofia show signs of trespassers and vandals.
The inner dome of the Buzludzha Monument has fallen into a state of disrepair.
Opened in 1981, the Buzludzha Monument was constructed on site by the Bulgarian communist regime, and was abandoned in 1990 with the fall of the USSR.
At 4,728 ft. tall, the historical peak of Buzludzha is located in the Central Balkan Mountains.
The monument has since fallen into disrepair.
The city of Varna is the home of this monument to the former Bulgarian-Soviet alliance.
An impressive smoke stack from a lime producing factory that last operated in the 1950s.
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