Elbasan County, Albania
Over 750,000 bunkers were built under the direction of Communist dictator Enver Hoxha, who controlled Albania from the end of World War II until he died in 1985 as one of the most isolationist Stalinists.
Initially an ally of the Soviet Union, Hoxha later denounced it as revisionist and anti-Marxist following Stalin’s death. As a result, all of the Warsaw Pact nations stopped supporting Albania. Hoxha then aligned Albania with China, but that partnership ended in 1977. Eventually, Hoxha aimed to make Albania self-sufficient.
Under Hoxha’s rule, religion and foreign travel were banned, and his secret police often suppressed dissent. A significant portion of the country’s budget, nearly a quarter, was allocated to the military, which included the construction of bunkers. These bunkers were first developed in the 1950s, with the chief engineer guaranteeing Hoxha that they would withstand a tank’s full-on assault. To test this claim, Hoxha had the engineer inside during the attack, and after he survived unscathed, the mass production of the bunkers began.
Hoxha feared an invasion from either his former Soviet allies or NATO. To prevent this, he ordered the construction of numerous concrete and steel bunkers, which could stop millions of soldiers. These bunkers were built nationwide, including in neighbourhoods, fields, playgrounds, cemeteries, and beaches, and resembled sinister grey mushrooms growing from the mountains to the coastline.
Albanians who came across the sniper windows created by the authorities were left feeling constantly anxious, even though the enemy never appeared. Even today, many years after Hoxha’s totalitarian regime ended, the bunkers remain a prominent feature of the landscape. While some resourceful Albanians have turned a few into hotels or homes, most bunkers remain abandoned and are now covered in weeds. Only those in dire need of shelter occupy them. These bunkers can be seen all over Albania’s hilly terrain, visible from nearly every angle in the country’s 11,100 square miles.
Albania is one of Europe’s poorest countries due to years of communist isolation followed by unfettered capitalism. Each bunker costs around 800 euros to demolish, and there is about one bunker for every four Albanians. T-59s, a Chinese variant of a Soviet-era tank, were rolled into Albanian beaches in 2009 to destroy some bunkers endangering the lives of the civilians they were designed to protect. Several people had drowned in the whirlpools formed by the streams surrounding the bunkers, and the concrete was deteriorating and splitting due to the ocean waves. Even with their removal, they constitute a minor proportion of the bunkers that guard the country as it strives to emerge from Enver Hoxha’s shadow.
