Coming to power during World War II, communist dictator Enver Hoxha cut Albania off from the outside world for four decades and banned travel. During this period, 500,000 concrete shelters were built across the country on beaches, mountains and plains.

Albanian communist dictator Enver Hoxha severed ties with neighboring Yugoslavia in 1949, the Soviet Union in 1961 and China in 1978. His fear of invasion caused the regime to spend about 5% of its annual budget on the army.

Many of them have survived to this day. This long isolation, combined with the Yugoslav wars that rocked the Balkans in the 1990s, resulted in a bleak image of Albania.

However, the Kukesi Tunnels are special. From the 1970s until the early 1990s, the underground network was intended to house the city’s entire population of 16,000 for six months in the event of war. Equipped with every comfort, from a prosecutor’s office to a maternity hospital, it was Albania’s largest fortification project, with tunnels up to seven kilometers long. Elderly residents of the area remember this complex well, which was largely built with the participation of local residents and was used only once during a civil defense exercise in the late 1980s.

Now local authorities are hoping to turn it into a tourist attraction with European Union funding. The expert in charge of the museum project stated that “the tunnels are of great interest, especially from foreigners, as well as (Albanian) young people who have no knowledge, no information or who have not experienced communism.”

By the end of the year, officials hope to have a multi-room command center and a long tunnel, accessible from city hall, leading to it.

Source: Associated Press.

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