The concrete bunkers of Albania are a ubiquitous sight in the country, with an average of 5.7 bunkers for every square kilometre. The bunkers (Albanian: bunkerët) were built during the communist government of Enver Hoxha from the 1960s to the 1980s; by 1983 a total of 173,371 concrete bunkers had been constructed around the country
The bunkerisation programme was stopped soon after Hoxha's death in 1985, leaving Albania's towns and countryside dotted with vast numbers of useless bunkers. They still dominate the Albanian landscape. A BBC reporter described in 1998 how they were ubiquitous on the road between Tirana and the city's airport, "looking down from every hillside, sprouting out of every bank." Their solidity has made it difficult to get rid of them. Some have been removed, particularly in cities, but in the countryside most bunkers have simply been abandoned. Some have been reused as housing for animals or as storehouses; others have been abandoned to lie derelict due to the cost of removing them.
The extreme secrecy of the Communist regime meant that Albania's post-communist governments lacked information on how the bunkers had been used, or even how many had been built. In 2004 Albanian officials discovered a forgotten stockpile of 16 tons of mustard gas and other chemical weapons in an unguarded bunker only 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Tirana. The United States government gave Albania $20 million to destroy the weapons. In other places, abandoned bunkers have become a lethal danger. In 2008 alone, at least five holiday-makers drowned when they were caught in whirlpools created by water currents around bunkers that had subsided into the sea. The Albanian army has carried out bunker removal programmes along the coastline, dragging them out of the ground with modified Type 59 tanks.
Although the bunkers were never used in a real conflict during Hoxha's rule, some found use in conflicts that broke out in the 1990s. During the 1997 rebellion in Albania, the townspeople of Sarandë in southern Albania were reported to have taken up positions in bunkers around the town in the face of fighting between government troops and rebels. After the outbreak of the Kosovo War in 1999, border villages in Albania were repeatedly shelled by Serbian artillery batteries located in nearby Kosovo and local people used the bunkers to shelter from the shelling.
Kosovo Albanian refugees took to using bunkers as temporary shelters until aid agencies could move them into tent camps, while NATO troops stationed in Albania relocated dozens of bunkers to fortify their base at Kukës.The Kosovo Liberation Army also used them as defensive positions during the Kosovo War, though this was not without its risks; on at least one occasion bunkers along Albania's border with Kosovo were mistakenly bombed by NATO aircraft.
An acute shortage of housing after the fall of the Communist regime in 1990 led some Albanians to set up home in abandoned bunkers, though the lack of running water and sanitation meant that the area around inhabited bunkers soon became contaminated and unhealthy. A few bunkers have found more creative uses. In the coastal city of Durrës one beachside bunker has been turned into the Restaurant Bunkeri, and another bunker in Gjirokastër was turned into a café.
There have been various suggestions for what to do with them: ideas have included pizza ovens, solar heaters, beehives, mushroom farms, projection rooms for drive-in cinemas, beach huts, flower planters, youth hostels and kiosks. Some Albanians have taken to using the bunkers for more romantic purposes. In a country where until recently cars were in short supply, they were popular places for lovers to consummate their relationships; as travel writer Tony Wheeler puts it, "Albanian virginity is lost in a Hoxha bunker as often as American virginity was once lost in the back seats of cars."
Is there any more pictures of them on the inside? its interesting it seems to have movable concrete slabs over a window and what looks like an entrance in the back there? odd design choice for something that was meant to be temporary.
Dexter_russell on July 24th, 2017 at 01:21 UTC »
Wyatt1313 on July 24th, 2017 at 02:23 UTC »
Is there any more pictures of them on the inside? its interesting it seems to have movable concrete slabs over a window and what looks like an entrance in the back there? odd design choice for something that was meant to be temporary.
Jovinkus on July 24th, 2017 at 04:37 UTC »
RIP Uncle Owen.