Fraternal Barrow Memorial Complex
Location: Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Completed: 1974
Designers: Lubomir Chinkov, Vladimir Rangelov (architects), Lubomir Dalchev, Ana Dalcheva; Petar Atanasov (sculptors)
Alternative name: Hillock of Fraternity, Brotherly Mound
Genre: War memorial, Socialist monument, former Eastern Bloc
The memorial complex was unveiled on the 30th anniversary of the 9 September (1944) coup d’état, a notable event in Bulgaria’s more recent history that set the country on the path to its ‘Socialist Revolution’. As well as remembering antifascists who lost their lives during World War II, the sculptural composition is dedicated to those who fell during the struggle for Liberation from Ottoman Rule as well as the Unification of Bulgaria in 1885.
The structure symbolises a Thracian hillock/burial mound and inside is a 90-metre-long circular wall decorated with sculpted figures that represent partisans and other heroes connected with the Liberation of Bulgaria. The remains of 126 partisans from the Plovdiv region are kept in a series of square bronze urns within the confines of the memorial. More information about Bulgaria’s communist-era monuments and memorials.
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