Bulgaria's Communist monument gets a face lift

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Bulgaria's controversial Communist-era monument

is getting a face lift

The giant UFO-like Buzludzha monument

was built to glorify Communist rule

It has been left to crumble

facing vandalism, severe weather and thieves

after the regime collapsed in 1989

(SOUNDBITE) (English) CHAIR OF THE CONSERVATION DEPARTMENT AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH, THOMAS DANZL, SAYING:

"We are keen as restorers to help to protect this heritage from risk, because in just a half a year we lost big parts of the mosaic just by the weather. And now we are sheltering the mosaics, preventing, in such a way, further decay."

The monument is a Brutalist example

of Socialist architecture

and is one of Europe’s largest modernist mosaics

Now a team is restoring the inside

while Bulgaria decides the monument’s fate

(SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) ARCHITECT LEADING INITIATIVE FOR MONUMENT’S PRESERVATION, DORA IVANOVA, SAYING:

"We believe that in order to overcome the trauma of history, it should not be forgotten nor should we destroy everything that was created during the periods that we like or do not like. On the contrary - they should exist to remind us, to help us learn from the mistakes of the past so that we know our own history, and know where we're coming from."