Just returned from a family holiday in Macedonia (quick tip for everyone - it's the cheapest country in Europe and the beaches on Lake Ohrid are beautiful). Anyways took the opportunity to hire a taxi for the day and nip over into Albania for a few hours.
The Albania bunkers are really just pillboxes but everyone out there calls them bunkers, so I will do the same. Whilst each one is not too interesting, what is interesting is the sheer number of them. Estimates suggest that the paranoid communist-era dictator Enver Hoxha built between 400000 to 750000 of them from the 1960s to the 1980s! To put that into context, that is one bunker for every 4 Albanians. At one point 25% of the country's GDP was being spent on constructing the bunkers.
With the end of the communist era, Albania is now facing a huge bill to remove the bunkers and probably only about 150000 bunkers remain. Even so, parachute anywhere into Albania and walk in any direction and you will hit a bunker very quickly. It seemed that every street or field had a least one.
HISTORY
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.
Hoxha's programme of "bunkerisation" resulted in the construction of bunkers in every corner of the then People's Socialist Republic of Albania, ranging from mountain passes to city streets. They were never used for their intended purpose during the years that Hoxha governed. The cost of constructing them was a drain on Albania's resources, diverting them away from more pressing needs, such as dealing with the country's housing shortage and poor roads. On average, they are said to have each cost the equivalent of a two-room apartment and the resources used to build them could had easily have resolved Albania's chronic infrastructure problems.
Citizens were trained from the age of 12 to station themselves in the nearest bunker to repel invaders. Local Party cells organised families to clean and maintain their local bunkers, and civil defence drills were held at least twice a month, lasting for up to three days, in which civilians of military age of both sexes were issued with rifles (but no ammunition).
The capital city, Tirana, was particularly heavily defended, with thousands of bunkers radiating out in fifty concentric circles around the city.
The bunkers were abandoned following the collapse of communism in 1990. Most are now derelict, though some have been reused for a variety of purposes including residential accommodation, cafés, storehouses and shelters for animals or the homeless. A few, on the border with Kosovo, briefly saw use in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
CONSTRUCTION
The most common type of bunker is a small concrete dome set into the ground with a circular bottom extending downwards, just large enough for one or two people to stand inside. Known as Qender Zjarri ("firing position") or QZ bunkers, they were prefabricated and transported to their final positions, where they were assembled. They consist of three main elements: a 3m diameter hemispherical concrete dome with a firing slit, a hollow cylinder to support the dome and an outer wall with a radius 60cm larger than the cylinder. The gap between the cylinder and outer wall is filled with earth.
QZ bunkers were often built in groups of 2 or 3 with a prefabricated concrete tunnel linking them.
The command-and-control bunkers, known as Pike Zjarri ("firing point") or PZ bunkers, were also prefabricated and assembled on site. They are far larger and heavier than the QZ bunkers, with a diameter of 8 metres. They are made from a series of concrete slices, each weighing eight or nine tons, which were concreted together on site to form an interlocking dome. Fully assembled, they weigh between 350 to 400 tons.
REPORT
A few photos from the Lake Ohrid region of Albania. In the 30km we drove we saw 100s of QZ bunkers and a single PZ bunker.
I agree that they all do look the same and my Macedonian taxi driver never did understand my fascination. I think he was a bit miffed by the end of the day due to me stopping the taxi every 100m or so to take a photo.
This one looked different
Reclaimed by Lake Ohrid
In a campsite and an attempt made to disguise it
A group of two bunkers with an underground concrete tunnel linking them
Yes they are looking the same now. My wife's patience and that of the taxi driver was weaning now
This one held a small Orthodox shrine inside, for Albania has a significant Christian minority
Maybe I did take too many photos. The wife thinks that my bunker fascination is a cause for concern.
The only PZ bunker that we saw
With added family for the purposes of adding a sense of scale. Sadly no taxi driver in the photo, as he was refusing to leave his taxi by this point
And a final encore. To be honest, I could had spent the whole week driving around Albania photographing these. But the highest authority in my life disagreed and made it very clear that she wanted to be on the beaches in Macedonia. And so it was time to put the camera away, fetch the suncream and slip into my new thonged speedos.
Anyways if you are still awake, which I admit is unlikely, thanks for reading.
Finally, Enver Hoxha being the paranoid nutcase that he was, is said to have built 1000s of km of tunnels in his country. Me thinks there's great exploration potential out there. I am aware of a recently discovered tunnel complex under the Lin peninsula on Lake Ohrid but sadly did not have the time to investigate in person. Maybe a project for somebody else.
The Albania bunkers are really just pillboxes but everyone out there calls them bunkers, so I will do the same. Whilst each one is not too interesting, what is interesting is the sheer number of them. Estimates suggest that the paranoid communist-era dictator Enver Hoxha built between 400000 to 750000 of them from the 1960s to the 1980s! To put that into context, that is one bunker for every 4 Albanians. At one point 25% of the country's GDP was being spent on constructing the bunkers.
With the end of the communist era, Albania is now facing a huge bill to remove the bunkers and probably only about 150000 bunkers remain. Even so, parachute anywhere into Albania and walk in any direction and you will hit a bunker very quickly. It seemed that every street or field had a least one.
HISTORY
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.
Hoxha's programme of "bunkerisation" resulted in the construction of bunkers in every corner of the then People's Socialist Republic of Albania, ranging from mountain passes to city streets. They were never used for their intended purpose during the years that Hoxha governed. The cost of constructing them was a drain on Albania's resources, diverting them away from more pressing needs, such as dealing with the country's housing shortage and poor roads. On average, they are said to have each cost the equivalent of a two-room apartment and the resources used to build them could had easily have resolved Albania's chronic infrastructure problems.
Citizens were trained from the age of 12 to station themselves in the nearest bunker to repel invaders. Local Party cells organised families to clean and maintain their local bunkers, and civil defence drills were held at least twice a month, lasting for up to three days, in which civilians of military age of both sexes were issued with rifles (but no ammunition).
The capital city, Tirana, was particularly heavily defended, with thousands of bunkers radiating out in fifty concentric circles around the city.
The bunkers were abandoned following the collapse of communism in 1990. Most are now derelict, though some have been reused for a variety of purposes including residential accommodation, cafés, storehouses and shelters for animals or the homeless. A few, on the border with Kosovo, briefly saw use in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.
CONSTRUCTION
The most common type of bunker is a small concrete dome set into the ground with a circular bottom extending downwards, just large enough for one or two people to stand inside. Known as Qender Zjarri ("firing position") or QZ bunkers, they were prefabricated and transported to their final positions, where they were assembled. They consist of three main elements: a 3m diameter hemispherical concrete dome with a firing slit, a hollow cylinder to support the dome and an outer wall with a radius 60cm larger than the cylinder. The gap between the cylinder and outer wall is filled with earth.
QZ bunkers were often built in groups of 2 or 3 with a prefabricated concrete tunnel linking them.
The command-and-control bunkers, known as Pike Zjarri ("firing point") or PZ bunkers, were also prefabricated and assembled on site. They are far larger and heavier than the QZ bunkers, with a diameter of 8 metres. They are made from a series of concrete slices, each weighing eight or nine tons, which were concreted together on site to form an interlocking dome. Fully assembled, they weigh between 350 to 400 tons.
REPORT
A few photos from the Lake Ohrid region of Albania. In the 30km we drove we saw 100s of QZ bunkers and a single PZ bunker.
I agree that they all do look the same and my Macedonian taxi driver never did understand my fascination. I think he was a bit miffed by the end of the day due to me stopping the taxi every 100m or so to take a photo.
This one looked different
Reclaimed by Lake Ohrid
In a campsite and an attempt made to disguise it
A group of two bunkers with an underground concrete tunnel linking them
Yes they are looking the same now. My wife's patience and that of the taxi driver was weaning now
This one held a small Orthodox shrine inside, for Albania has a significant Christian minority
Maybe I did take too many photos. The wife thinks that my bunker fascination is a cause for concern.
The only PZ bunker that we saw
With added family for the purposes of adding a sense of scale. Sadly no taxi driver in the photo, as he was refusing to leave his taxi by this point
And a final encore. To be honest, I could had spent the whole week driving around Albania photographing these. But the highest authority in my life disagreed and made it very clear that she wanted to be on the beaches in Macedonia. And so it was time to put the camera away, fetch the suncream and slip into my new thonged speedos.
Anyways if you are still awake, which I admit is unlikely, thanks for reading.
Finally, Enver Hoxha being the paranoid nutcase that he was, is said to have built 1000s of km of tunnels in his country. Me thinks there's great exploration potential out there. I am aware of a recently discovered tunnel complex under the Lin peninsula on Lake Ohrid but sadly did not have the time to investigate in person. Maybe a project for somebody else.
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