Communist Era Bunkers in Albania (1 Viewer)

[ucla1967]

Last month, we spent one night in Albania as a part of our 18 day escorted coach tour of the Balkans. Albania is a small country with a population of 2.9 million in an area of about 11,000 square miles. It is also, like most of the other countries we visited, very poor. Its' annual per capita gross domestic product is $4,900 compared to the annual per capita gross domestic product in the United States of $54,500.

Albania was an isolated, one-man communist dictatorship for decades under Enver Hoxha. He was very paranoid and feared a NATO invasion, so he built thousands of military bunkers all over Albania to fend off any attack. The first photo shows one of these prefabricated bunkers on display at a roadside restaurant near the coast; normally about half of it would be buried in the ground. The next four photos show some of the 13 bunkers on a hillside opposite a different restaurant near the Macedonian border where we stopped for lunch.

 

[jazzeum]

It's not often someone visits Albania, let alone provides photographs. Thanks for the photo Mike.

 

[lancer]

Albanians must be a polite people. I notice there is no trace of graffiti on the bunkers. If those were in the US...:rolleyes2: -- Al

 

[ucla1967]

It's not often someone visits Albania, let alone provides photographs. Thanks for the photo Mike.

You're right about that, Brad. Albania is not high on the list of must see places in the world, but that being said, I am glad that we were able to visit so many off-the-beaten-track European countries, including Albania. Although these are not bunkers, here are three photos of the main square in Tirana, the capital, showing various public buildings. Notice the mosque in the first photo, the Albania flag in the second, and the Orthodox church in the background with the unmowed grass in the foreground in the third. Just about two blocks from the main square is a public park which use to be the grounds of the presidential residence which has the same style bunkers scattered about it as in the first post.

 

[ucla1967]

Albanians must be a polite people. I notice there is no trace of graffiti on the bunkers. If those were in the US...:rolleyes2: -- Al

I don't know about polite, but you are right about the lack of graffiti on these bunkers, Al. However, if you look at the last photo the word "orange" has been professionally painted on it---possibly some sort of advertising? It also appears that the bunker may have been painted orange at one time.