Place Bulgarie, Public square with communist statue in Gbegamey district, Cotonou, Benin
Place Bulgarie is a public square in the Gbégamey district of Cotonou, in the city's 11th arrondissement. It is built around a statue of Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian communist, and is known locally as Papa Bulgarie or "le vieux Bulgare".
Place Bulgarie was laid out under General Mathieu Kérékou, whose Parti de la révolution populaire du Bénin governed the country during its Marxist-Leninist period as the People's Republic of Benin. The square and its statue of the Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov date from that era, which ended with the February 1990 national conference that opened the transition to democracy.
Local people call this location Papa Bulgaria or Old Bulgarian, names that reflect how the community remembers its past. These everyday names show how residents have made the place part of their neighborhood identity.
The square is located in the northern part of Cotonou and is accessible on foot when exploring the Gbegamey neighborhood. The flat terrain makes it easy to walk around and observe the area from different angles.
The square's name comes from the statue of Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian communist leader, erected to mark Benin's Marxist-Leninist period under General Mathieu Kérékou and the Popular Revolutionary Party of Benin. Locals call the place Papa Bulgarie or Old Bulgarian, after the figure it honours.
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