The massive, top secret Cold War nuclear bunker of former Albanian leader Enver Hoxha was opened to the public on Saturday, decades after it was built by the paranoid communist regime fearing an attack by the West that never came.
The ex-dictator’s bed, covered with a red mattress, is still in place in his bunker bedroom, with a Soviet-era radio on his bedside table. During Hoxha’s 40-year rule, Albania was one of the world’s most isolated countries, obsessed about an attack by the West.
Now, 24 years after the fall of the regime, its countryside is still dotted by the remains of about 700,000 bunkers. Officials have said the structures, referred to as “mushrooms” by locals, were built to be indestructible and defend against an army of millions.
According to informed sources, Hoxha, who died in 1985, had at least four secret refuges built for him and his family around Tirana.
Built into the side of a mountain just east of the capital, Tirana, the 2,685m2 underground shelter opened on Saturday sprawls across five levels and contains 106 rooms, including a cinema. Built covertly between 1972 and 1978, it was designed to serve as the headquarters of the central committee and the communist assembly in the event of war.
A guide at the opening described it as a “real five-star” complex.
“We have decided to open everything up,” Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama after visiting the site.
“The idea to build it arose after a visit [by Hoxha] to North Korea in 1964,” Albanian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Edlira Prendi said.
Until recently, the giant bunker still featured on an Albanian army “top secret” list, she added.
The bunker is to be placed under the care of the Albanian Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports, and is to host a museum and an exhibition space for artists.
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