The most secret and fascinating objects left from the former communist state are those that lay in plain sight all along. Today we discover a hidden nuclear bunker on the outskirts of a small Croatian village. Constructed in the 1950s by the Yugoslavian national army, it was part of a top secret communications network used to monitor and relay military information across the country in wartime.
These sites came in many forms, some have been buried in giant mountains far away from any curious onlookers and guarded with mines like in our last report and some were placed in plain sight, in villages and towns. This one was placed underneath an ordinary looking house, on the edge of a small village, concealed in plain sight. Huge antennas served to establish optical visibility with at least 3 others such sites, forming a spider web like communication structure across the country.
The house had giant conference rooms, a kitchen and living quarters for the soldiers stationed there tasked to maintain the equipment.
Underground, every exit was blocked by thick blast doors with rubber seal on the edges. A ventilation system with huge filters was used to circulate the air inside. Two generators were to provide backup power for keeping the radio equipment running in case the main power failed.
With the fall of Yugoslavia and it's huge military, these sites were seen as obsolete and most of them closed in the late 90s. Today, locals are still in the dark as to what was happening beside their homes at this heavily guarded place as the details of its operations are still hidden in old state archives. If you are interested in the video exploration of the place, complete with the underground part, you can check it out here:
The reason the top-side house was so large is likely because the important people who were assigned to the site (the officers) generally wouldn't like being in the bunker unless they had to be (war time alerts & exercises). We all think bunkers are cool, but most people would not want to spend a lot of time in them, away from fresh air, sunlight and windows. So some rooms in the above-ground building were probably offices for the officers, who could then quickly get into the bunker when they needed to be there. I have no idea how many security people were assigned to the Objekt, but they would have needed a place to 'hang out' and relax when taking a break, etc. plus maybe a room with bunk-beds topside to sleep in under normal conditions.
On a daily basis, the bunker probably just had some communications people, a communications equipment technician, a power & ventilation maintenance person, and maybe a supervisor inside it.
I'll bet all the local villagers knew about it, Especially if it were a rather poor village, they certainly wouldn't have thought the antennas and towers on the property weren't because the man living there was a ham radio operator (in fact, I think Yugoslavia probably did not allow ham radio back in the day), and would have noticed that when the rest of the village had a power outage, this place still had power.
/-/ooligan
There are no stupid questions, just stupid people.
Good observations. Indeed, we found an outdoor spot where the officers used to hand out. It was a table, surrounded with chairs, in the shadows of a large tree. Reading the local forums, we found reports of people that were stationed in such sites during their compulsory military service in the 80s. They didn't know much of the technical details because it was a state secret at the time, but recounted stories how such radar sites were, quote: "The best place to be stationed during service". They were only required to maintain the radio equipment and occasionally go pick up the post in a nearby village. The rest of the time they hang out and played cards.
This pattern of an underground part for the equipment covered by a giant house that was used as a living quarter for the solders was persistent in most such sites we explored.
The locals knew for sure, it's hard to hide this much military presence in such a small village where everybody knew everyone. But this was a time when people feared the infamous state police, so even if you knew something, you would keep quiet.
The "Auschwitz-style" fence posts are pretty creepy.
As for the concrete blocks with the handles, all I can think of is counterweights for some manual system of moving equipment in and out of the basement?
Posted by Emperor Wang As for the concrete blocks with the handles, all I can think of is counterweights for some manual system of moving equipment in and out of the basement?
Yeah, that would be the only reasonable explanation. But the block aren't that heavy by themselves, you could easily pick up a couple of them simultaneously.
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