#Bunkart

[surelookbutnothingtoseehere]

A bunker in Tirana. The faces are people that were killed by the dictatorial Hoxha regime.

Very impressive to know the sufferings of the Albanians.

#pictures #my picture #my pictures #amateur photography #my photography #photography #original content #original photography blog #tiranë #tirana #albania #history of albania #albanien #albanian history #enver hoxha #hoxha #bunkart

[serrity]

Inside the #bunker constructed for #EnverHoxha and the #Albanian #communist leadership in the event of #nuclear war #coldwar #history #bunkart #tirana #tirane #Albania #Balkans (at Bunk'art 1) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeZelOftmyG/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#bunker #enverhoxha #albanian #communist #nuclear #coldwar #history #bunkart #tirana #tirane #albania #balkans

[badlypackedtraveller]

Internal and External enemies

A day off in Tirane. Hop on the Number 11 bus that takes us to the outskirts of town to BunkArt 1.[1] All buses cost 40 Leke regardless of whether you go for one stop or twenty.

BunkArt is the most famous video-musuem exhibition in Albania, realised inside a super-bunker mined out under a hill. An underground palace (I’m quoting from the brochure here) with 102 rooms in which Hoxha and his cronies would be sheltered in the event of a nuclear war. A unique and exciting journey through the history of Albania from 1939 until the fall of the regime. This futile place was born out of Enver Hoxha’s fear, insecurity and a huge dollop of paranoia. Even more useless because Hoxha/Albania had no response to a nuclear attack so once locked inside there was nothing for him, his wife and generals to do but bicker and wait.

Few information boards have English translations however; in one room there is a large red button to push to simulate a mustard gas attack. Press the button and a puff of yellow dust is squirted at you. Very nice. Turns out the clean air filtration systems were rather leaky and the concrete doors failed to make an airtight lock too.

The ticket office is staffed by two people. A young girl who sells the tickets and an older guy who looks over her shoulder. Tickets bought the older guy then nips out of the back door of the hut at accost you moments later in order to check your ticket. Speaking to this chap later, although he still exhibited that old commie reticence and suspicion, he told us that the larger building adjacent to the entrance was commissioned by Hoxha’s Generals as a shared-use offices. Hoxha believed they were all plotting against him so had them all arrested and shot.

Next, to the House of Leaves.[2] Romantically named but as with all things Albanian hiding a dark past. More post-communism nods to Tirane and Albania shaking off, or at least acknowledging, its past. However, according to this museum, the perpetrators of various horrors mostly got away with it. No Truth and Reconciliation Commission here. Also known as the National Museum of Secret Surveillance. Formerly a maternity clinic for the privileged few, later an interrogation centre for the masses. In the Hoxha era the way to get ahead or to curry favour and keep yourself safe was to inform. Everybody was at it; such was the cultural indoctrination that mistrust ruled.

In the evening we head to Blloku, “The Block”, the affluent bohemian nightlife area for good food at Era.[3] Rollers, Bentleys and top end Mercs and Audis are very much in evidence.

[1] Fadil Deliu Street. T: [phone] www.bunkart.al

[2] E: [email protected] www.muzeugjethi.gov.al

[3] T: [phone] E: [email protected] www.era.al

[avernaculardiary]

Entrance of Bunkart 2 in Tirana.

#bunkart #bunkart tirana #bunker #bunker tirana #bunker albania #bunkart2 #bunkart 2 #bunkart museum #museum tirana #tirana #albania #albanian landscape #Albanian Architecture #eastern europe #eastern architecture #Eastern City #balkan #balkans

[natmaryjane]

#bunkart #super #museum

[oyvindbo]

#bunker #bed #tirana #bunkart #bunkart2 @we_heart_tirana #tirane #albania (ved Bunk'Art 2)

#bunkart #bunkart2 #tirana #tirane #bed #bunker #albania

[iris-njesoj-si-lulja]

From the original series “Irisi dhe diktatura”, 2nd episode “This exact spot” ; the infamous dictator poses for the cameras during one of his few visits to the bunker (that he built as precautionary measure of what war again?? Still a very cool bunker nonetheless) in this exact spot. Note my face expression! © @grettemeshi #bunkart (at BUNK'ART)

#bunkart #bunker #communism #albania #dictatorship

[kylejimenezart]

Way too trustworthy, Cmeha 9 - Kodak Colorplus 400

Really impressed with how this one turned out.

#photo #35mm film photography #Film photography #Cmeha 9 #kodak colorplus 200 #albania #bunkart #shqiperia

[antoniocakshiri]

"Asgjë Sikur Dielli" performoi në Bunk'Rock #Tirane #BunkArt #Tirana #Albania #Shqiperi #BunkRock #Asgjesikurdielli

#bunkrock #albania #bunkart #shqiperi #asgjesikurdielli #tirana #tirane

[jenkinatortravels-blog]

  Tirana, Albania’s capital city – all I knew about Albania was that it had produced the people responsible for kidnapping Liam Neeson’s daughter…

I was afraid, very afraid… my dad is not Liam Neeson and he does not have a very particular set of skills – if I was TAKEN and made part of a prostitution ring in this ex-communist nation, that was me done.

However, I was not taken and I had an unexpectedly amazing experience in the eclectic city which boasts a rich history dating far back before it’s brutal, communist regime era.

  In order to get to the city, I had to catch a small van ride from the coastal paradise of Budva, situated on the southern coast of Montenegro near the Albanian boarder. The drive began with the venal, cigar-smoking driver stopping at many small road-side stalls, collecting a fair number of cigarette cartons which he then smuggled over the border from Montenegro and in to Albania. Obviously his day job, driving tourists back and forth across the boarder, was not quite fiscally rewarding enough to stop him from risking arrest by the Albanian boarder police.

Once in Tirana – a city under constant construction as a result of the corrupt nature of the government there – I made a bee-line for my hostel so that I could deposit my belongings in a ‘semi’ safe location. As I wandered across the cracked sidewalk and past rather decrepit buildings, I was beginning to wonder if I had made a wrong turn somewhere… when suddenly a man stood up an ushered me over to the group of elderly men squatting around a game of street dice – I must have looked very lost at this point. Rather apprehensively, I stepped towards the small crowd and the man pointed to a small green gate at the end of a rubble covered carpark that was also home to a ‘pill-box’ bunker… “hostel is over there!” he shouted, before he returned to his gambling.

“This is it” I thought, I looked at the door and knew that after months of travel, I had finally stepped into the scene of  the infamous film ‘Hostel‘ and was going to be drugged (against my will in this case…), have my organs stripped from my carcass and left to die in some dirty, icy bathwater.

However, I was pleasantly mistaken to find that behind this unassuming green gate, there was a garden oasis with individuals and groups of people sat reading, chatting and smoking some strange scented herbs all around the small, jungle-like Eden I had stumbled into. Sadly, this relief was short lived, as I was immediately set upon by the resident ‘traveler‘  who’s picture below will do everything that my description can’t…

Anyway, after hearing of this lad’s tales of self-discovery, I went walkabout around this strange city and joined a walking tour which consisted of the tour-guide, me and a young Chinese chap who had to leave early to collect his dear mother. As I would always say to anyone thinking of going on a tour of any European city, the free walking tours are an absolute must; they are simply the best way to get a quick overview of the cities history, the best spots to go out for a drink and something to eat and they also help you get your bearings.

Having my own personal tour-guide was great! I took it as a chance to ask the many questions I had about the hundreds of small ‘pill-box’ bunkers I had seen around the city and was shown to an area of the local history museum usually off limits to tourists which housed the broken and battered remnants of the statues of the once proud Communist Icons which littered the capital.

I also learnt the story behind the mystery of the many small bunkers I had passed on my walks around the city; it turns out that the entire country had been covered in over 750,000 small bunkers during a ‘bunkarisation‘ scheme that the communist government claimed would be able to defend the isolationist regime against any threat – a claim that was, thankfully, never put to the test. These small bunkers were so many in number that there was one per four people in Albania and were intended to be used by every man woman and child to defend themselves and their ‘glorious’ leader.

Made by Jeroenvrp http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jeroenvrp Made in the summer of 2001 by a analog camera and scanned in Feb. 2008

Tirana also hold many other interesting secrets, including: the solitary minaret of the only Mosque left as a museum by the communist regime; a street named after the US president George W Bush; a ‘modernist’, communist, concrete pyramid falling into decay; stray dogs in massive numbers (most of whom were steralised by the local government in recent times); massive clubs and bars; and best of all…

An absolutely immense underground bunker! This bunker (or bunk’art, as it is known by the locals) was built by the Albanian Communist Dictator, Enver Hoxha. It was one of his private anti-nuclear shelters – reserved for the Albania’s political elite. This bunker remained hidden in plain site – right beneath the city of Tirana itself – for over 40 years. When I say that this bunker is immense, I mean it is absolutely MASSIVE! It has over 100 rooms, including: a dining hall, classrooms, exercise rooms and, of course, a cinema!

This underground labyrinth  had to be the highlight of my time in Tirana; it is most certainly at the top of my recommendations for anyone traveling to the city to go and visit. Even if you aren’t someone interested in Cold War history, I truly think it is an awe inspiring creation and shows the reality of the scale of the corruption of the despot dictators of the European Communist regimes.

Anyway, after having nearly locked myself in a toilet some distance underground and thinking that I was going to be trapped in this bunker overnight, I returned to my hostel just in time – almost as soon as I had walked through the door, an almighty downpour of rain began to fall. Shortly thereafter, the thunderstorm was in full swing and our power went out. As a result, there was no wifi, barely any light and nothing else for it, but to sit on the covered balcony and start chugging back the delicious home-brewed beer on offer at the hostel bar.

It was while I sat chatting to a rather large African-American ‘jock’, a very hungover kiwi girl and two Germans, that I came across a small guitar and a beanie… being a ‘few’ pints into the candle-lit drinking session, I thought I might take on the persona of the traveler lad who had greeted me at the door the day prior…

I think I pulled of the look rather well, don’t you…?

  Tirana, was an unexpectedly interesting and, most certainly, enjoyable city to visit. There were plenty of things I simply didn’t have time to explore there, such as the numerous night-clubs and bars apparently heaving with beautiful Albanian women (guarded by their very protective brothers, fathers, uncles, male friends, male cousins, second-cousins… the list goes on).

This city is a must do – the beers are cheap, the history is rich beyond compare and the locals who experienced life under the regime are still very much alive and will happily answer any questions you might have.

Aside from the infamous ‘traveler’ ‘friend’ I met at my hostel, it really is one of the Balkans‘ best doss-downs – so, if you’re heading over that way ‘Trip’n’Hostel’ is the way to go.

Tirana – Bunkers, Beers and Powercuts Tirana, Albania's capital city - all I knew about Albania was that it had produced the people responsible for kidnapping Liam Neeson's daughter...

#Albania #balkans #balkantravel #Bunkart #coldwar #expandyourmind #explore #instagram #instatravelling #livelife #nuclearbunker #Travelthebulkans #bbctravel #instatravel #instatraveling #lifestyleblog #lifewelltravelled #mytravelgram #solotravel #Tirana #Travel #travelblog #travelbug #traveldeeper #traveldiaries #Travelgram #travellers #travelogue #traveltips #welltravelled

[silentshoutstudios]

Film during communist regimes - - #film #communism #regime #art #bunker #bunkart #albania #installation #enverhoxha #35mm #sculpture #photography #movies #life #history (at Bunk'Art 2)

#communism #bunker #life #photography #35mm #regime #art #movies #sculpture #film #bunkart #albania #enverhoxha #history #installation

[tibusse-world]

Voyage en Albanie ! 2 semaines et 2 sacs à dos! Du 5 au 18 mai 2022

C'est parti pour 2 semaines en Albanie, à 2, avec nos sacs à dos!

Nous avons choisi ce pays pour les bons retours qu'on a eu, avec à la fois la mer et la montagne, sa distance proche de la France pour eviter trop d'heures de vol et ses prix abordables.

Au programme, une boucle vers le sud dans les terres et au bord de mer, puis quelques jour dans le nord pour un trek apparemment très beau!

Jeudi 5 et vendredi 6 mai 2022 : arrivée et découvert de la capitale, Tirana

Pas trop mal pour une capitale! Bcp de monuments historiques rappelant l'ère communiste qui a marqué le pays. Un mixte de citadelles/églises et de mosquées souvent non loin l'une de l'autre qui me rappelle la proximité des temples bouddhiste et hindouiste en Asie.

L'Albanie a été proclamée athée durant longtemps par son ancien dictateur, malgré tout, la religion reste présente aujourd'hui mais non extrême. Un mélange où chacun semble trouver sa place.

On loge deux nuits dans une guesthouse et avons la surprise d'arriver en plein "Spring Festival" où on découvre les musiques et chanteurs albanais le soir, sur la fameuse place Skanderbeg en plein centre de Tirana.

La capitale est plutôt développée, avec de nombreuses constructions en cours.

On découvre aussi la nourriture albanaise, les restaurants typiques s'appellent des Zguara : on y mange des Kofte (boulettes de viande de porc, agneau ou boeuf), qu'on peut saucer dans du yahourt (Kos comme du tzatziki, délicieux), des mélanges légumes, avec ou sans viande, et fromage/oeufs (Tavë), trop bon! Et des frites maison. Ils font bcp de grillades, avec tout types de saucisses.

Au restau on se regale pour moins de 10e/personne!

Niveau dessert il n'y en a pas tellement dans les restaus mais on trouve pleins de biscuits bien gras dans les boulangeries : avec du miel, de l'huile, souvent des noix ou noisettes, ca ressemble aux gâteaux du malghreb!

Pas trop ce que je préfère mais ça vaut le coup de goûter!

Côté histoire, on a fait le fameux BunkArt museum qui est littéralement dans un Bunker de l'époque (l'ancien dictateur en a apparemment construit plus de 700000 dans le pays par peur de l'invasion). Le musée présente l'histoire de l'Albanie depuis 1900 environ, dans une ambiance assez gloque du coup.

Il existe aussi pleins d'autres musées et on peut voir les bâtiments du gouvernement communiste jaune et rouge sur la place St.

On est aussi allé au Bazar (grand marché central) où on peut acheter de la nourriture et pleins d'objets (super beau tapis!).

Après 2 nuits, on se met en route vers Berat, la ville ottomane aux 1000 fenêtres.

[serrity]

Inside the #bunker constructed for #EnverHoxha and the #Albanian #communist leadership in the event of #nuclear war #coldwar #history #bunkart #tirana #tirane #Albania #Balkans (at Bunk'art 1) https://www.instagram.com/p/CeZeAx6tWAQ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#bunker #enverhoxha #albanian #communist #nuclear #coldwar #history #bunkart #tirana #tirane #albania #balkans

[sercantunali]

• B U N K • 🍂 - #bunkart #worldwar3 #bunkartalbania #characterdesign #doodle #doodles #drawing #instadaily #handdrawing #Simplycooldesign #illustration #blackworkillustrations #sketch #sketches #sketchbook #art #childrenbook #instaartist #instagood #inktobershowcase #illustrationartists #ohhdeer #pencil #tempuradesign #pencilart #ink #inkling #DailyDrawOff #design #inktober (at BUNK'ART)

#doodle #doodles #sketches #inktober #design #sketch #art #characterdesign #inkling #childrenbook #instagood #bunkartalbania #ink #blackworkillustrations #worldwar3 #inktobershowcase #handdrawing #dailydrawoff #ohhdeer #illustrationartists #instadaily #tempuradesign #drawing #simplycooldesign #sketchbook #pencilart #bunkart #instaartist #pencil #illustration

[sugarynspicey]

bunkart, 19

[iris-njesoj-si-lulja]

From the original series “Irisi dhe diktatura”, 3d episode “Commonism” ; the only ground me and the regimen stood in common(get my pun? Commonism, you’re hilarious Sharon) #bunkart (at BUNK'ART)

#bunkart #bunker #albania #dictatorship #communism #documents