By Angel Matsanov on Wednesday, 22 September 2021
Category: Blog

Restoration of the social mosaics of the Buzludzha flying saucer has begun

A German professor supervised the restoration. The project also has volunteers from France, Great Britain, Russia and the Netherlands

The Buzludzha Project Foundation started activities for the preservation of the mosaics from the outer circle of the Buzludzha monument. At this stage, 10 of the 14 mosaics will be saved from ruin, thanks to a team of volunteers, restorers and builders.

After two successful Getty Foundation-funded "Conservation and Management Plan" (2019) and "Inner Circle Mosaic Stabilization" (2020) projects, this year the Buzludzha Project continues with a campaign supported by people with small and larger donations.

This week, a team of restorers is working on the stabilization of the mosaics under the guidance of Prof. Thomas Danzl, head of the Department of Restoration at the Technical University of Munich and Dr. Nikifor Haralampiev, ch. assistant professor of the "Restoration" department at the National Academy of Arts.

The construction of a temporary protective covering over the mosaics, which will protect them from the severe weather conditions causing the destruction, also begins. To that end, a team of 20 volunteers (including from France, Great Britain, Russia and the Netherlands) have already brought the timber into the building, and professional builders are starting construction this week.

The Buzludzha Project Foundation thanks the Stara Zagora Regional Government, the Kazanlak Municipality and all donors, volunteers and like-minded people for their cooperation and support to make this initiative happen.

Through the "Osinovi mosaic" campaign, individuals, organizations and companies have the opportunity to support the preservation of a specific mosaic in order to preserve it for future generations.

Current activities are financed through the "Osinovy Mosaic" campaign, through individual donations and the support of the OPEN BUZLUDZHA FEST 2021 festival held in July, which united 20 musical groups and hundreds of young people around the cause of preserving the monument and the mosaic in it.

Four of the mosaics are still looking for their adopters to be processed, covered and protected before winter.

The mosaics in the Buzludzha monument are one of the largest mosaic works of the 20th century in Europe. They are the most valuable and most endangered element in the building and need urgent measures to prevent them from being irretrievably lost.

Their total area is nearly 1000 m2 and more than 2.5 million tesserae (pebbles) were used to make them. Two-thirds of these mosaics are still available. They are divided into two walls - an outer and an inner mosaic circle.

In the outer mosaic circle there are 14 mosaic panels on various themes such as "Women in our society", "Care for the next generation", "Bulgaria's peace-loving policy" and other exceptional works, the work of some of the most prominent Bulgarian artists of the period, among which Ivan Kirkov, Dimitar Kirov, Stoimen Stoilov, Toma Varbanov, Ivan B. Ivanov.

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