Memorial monument to the political prisoners
Plovdiv, Bulgaria Blvd., to the right of the Saint Petersburg Hotel
In the 1980s, Viktor Todorov was commissioned to design a memorial monument to the fallen political prisoners on the site of the old prison in Plovdiv, where the death sentences of the convicted were carried out.
The situational solution is a series of high concrete walls forming a maze-like structure. In the middle was situated a figure lying on its stomach, about 3 meters long, material bronze, with an arm raised from the elbow up. The concrete walls are made using the so-called “living concrete” technique and have a rough relief and surface. The height of the walls deprives the viewer of the surroundings and only a piece of the sky reminds of reality. The place of the fallen figure is chosen so that in all directions the viewer sees only walls. The face of the figure is stuck in the ground, the limbs are limp and lifeless, only the hand raised from the elbow up seems to be frozen in eternity. The atmosphere and radiance of the composition are highly impactful and refer to the sinister in a prison sentence.
The current state of the monument has nothing to do with the original, and even the little that remains is about to disappear forever. The reclining bronze figure has been dismantled or stolen. Most of the concrete walls have been demolished and construction work is currently going on at this site – there is no public information who the investor is and what exactly is about to be built there. The remains of the memorial have been turned into a dump.
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