Saturday, July 10, 2010

Follow up to Albania - Bunker Galore

In Albania, there are currently over 700,000 bunkers littering the country. Most are grouped together in what were thought as 'strategic' places, such as at the bottoms of mountains, in fields, along the main roads, and on the beaches. These bunkers were built from 1950 until 1985 by the communist ruler Enver Hoxha, who was paranoid that either Serbia or Russia was going to invade the country and take over. Although Albania has recently found big oil deposits, there was really no reason for any country to invade Albania. There was not much economic prosperity during the communist years (hence it was communism), but it would also be hard to successfully invade Albania because of its rugged, and mountainous landscape. Granted the valleys and lowlands are easily tranversible, getting to these areas is a bit hard from the surrounding countries and from the sea.

This old BBC article explains an interesting story of the beginning of the bunkers:

When the prototype bunker was finished in the 1950s he asked the chief engineer how confident he was that it could withstand a full assault from a tank. The answer was, "Very confident". The Communist Party supremo then insisted that the engineer stand inside his creation while it was bombarded by a tank.

Sadly for the current generation, the shell-shocked engineer emerged unscathed and his look-out posts went into production on a massive scale. The Communist Party has now gone, as has the giant gilded statue of Hoxha from the main square of the capital, Tirana, but the bunkers remain and the prosperous future is nowhere in sight.


Most lay abandoned and filled with trash and human excrement. But not all are, and I was able to take a picture from the inside looking out into the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean Sea). I was told that a year or two ago some bunkers were found to have weapons and hazardous material wastes. Some are being used as art (i.e. painting on them) and others are incorporated into buildings and bars (see below). But really, the government nor regular Albanians know what to do with all the bunkers, and it is too expensive to remove them. Most likely they will just remain a reminder of communist times.


This is the top of bunker, which now a support mechanism for a beach bar, as well as being a decoration. The rest of the bunker is underneath the bar.
If you look closely, there are bunkers lined up in front of the treeline along the beach.

The back of the bunker. You walk in the little door in the middle, but this bunker has sunk a bit in the sand.
This last picture is a communist monument that is along the main mountain road to Dhermi. Not many are left nor are so well preserved.

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