Strange mushroom-shaped bunkers that litter the landscape of Albania once belonged to a notorious dictator, whose paranoid fantasies drove bizarre and elaborate feats of engineering. New discoveries reveal the secrets of these structures and what led the country's leader to build them. Science Channel, 10th April 2025.
Concrete bunkers are everywhere in Albania—about 5.7 per square kilometer. They were built between the 1960s and 1980s under dictator Enver Hoxha, who ordered over 750,000 of them to be made in case of invasion.
These bunkers were put all over the country, from mountains to cities, but were never used in war. Building them used up a lot of money that could have gone to fixing roads or building homes.
After communism fell in 1992, the bunkers were left behind. Some were used briefly during the 1997 unrest and the Kosovo War in 1999. Today, most sit empty, though a few have been turned into homes, cafés, storage spaces, or shelters.
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