During the Cold War, Enver Hoxha, the hard-line leader of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, embraced isolationist and paranoid views, leading to the launch of a massive “bunkerization” project to defend the nation in 1968. Over 20 years, nearly 175,000 reinforced concrete bunkers were built across Albania, lining seashores and lakes, and dotting mountain passes, borders, farmland, and towns—at great expense and effort. However, these bunkers were never used as intended: They never sheltered the populace from a Soviet attack or an invasion by a neighbor, though they did see limited use during the Kosovo War and Albanian Civil War in the 1990s. In recent years, a few of the disused structures have been converted into hostels, homes, or museums, and many have been removed altogether, but most continue to slowly decay in place.
The Cold War Bunkers of Albania
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Photographs illustrating the political persecution of some 100,000 Albanians from 1945 to 1991, during the former Communist regime, cover the walls of a bunker at a museum in the capital, Tirana, on November 19, 2016. The former top-secret nuclear bunker was reopened as a museum in Albania’s capital to show visitors how Communist-era police persecuted the regime's opponents. #
Hektor Pustina / AP -
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An Albanian walks near a bunker encircled by barbed wire on the Adriatic Sea shore near Tale on September 21, 2012. One of the four bunkers was transformed into a hostel for backpackers as part of a project by German and Albanian architecture students. #
Arben Celi / Reuters -
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An Albanian girl plays at Seman Beach, near several concrete bunkers built during Albania's self-imposed isolation period under its Communist regime, near the city of Fier on July 15, 2009. #
Arben Celi / Reuters -
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This photo from May 26, 1999, shows an Albanian tank passing a Cold War–era bunker during army exercises near the northern Albanian village of Morina. When Serbian forces shelled border towns during the Kosovo War, some residents reportedly used the bunkers for shelter. #
Nikola Solic / Reuters -
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