Aleksandar Stambolijski Village Theater
THE ABANDONED THEATER IN BULGARIA
Aleksandar Stambolijski Village Theater, or ‘Селски театър Александър Стамболийски’ is an abandoned theater in Bulgaria. It was abandoned in the 1990s and is in a bad state. The theater was part of the social heart of the small village.
This small theater used to be the heart of this small Bulgarian village. The theater is situated in the Haskovo Province in southern Bulgaria, neighboring Greece and Turkey. The theater was part of a community complex. It was the center of the spiritual and social life of the village in the first half of the 20th century.
The community center stayed popular when the Bulgarian Communist Party ruled the People’s Republic of Bulgaria. Culture in PRB was strictly regulated by the government, although there were some periods of liberalization. The theater was used for political propaganda, but also by the local groups and schools.
After Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985, the Bulgarian Communist Party underwent political and economic liberalization, which liquidated the party and dissolved the People’s Republic. But the small village theaters became abandoned without the politic party that brought the residents together.
I visited this abandoned site in 2022 during my road trip through Bulgaria. Follow this link for more abandoned theaters.
