BunkArt

[caption id="attachment_2517" align="alignnone" width="660"] Russian Car[/caption]

Bunk'Art is a bunker turned into an art gallery & museum. It is located in the foots of Dajti Mountain, under a hill and inside a military zone (as expected). It was built by the communism regime during the cold war era, when we truly believed that America or any other powerful nation wanted to assault us with nuclear weapons to destroy our happiness...

To reach it is fairly easy. If you're going by public transport, go to Scanderbeg Square and ask for Tufina's bus. When on the bus, ask the ticket guy to warn you when close to Bunk'Art. I guess the bus station will be on the main road while the military base is at the end of a secondary road. There are signs though, hard to miss if you're not driving.

If by car, just ask around for the Dibra Street. It is fairly famous because the main hospital and the military school are on it. After the military school, the Dibra's Street divides into Aleksander Moisiu and Teki Selnica. The first one takes you to the Albanian Film Archive, that's another institution I'll cover in one of my future posts. Just take Teki Selnica, the one on your left and drive some 500 meters and keep an eye for signs to Bunkart.

Or just let me know beforehand and I'll drive you there if I'm free. :)

At the entrance of the military base you will have to show an ID. For the moment the entrance is free of charge. Check at their website beforehand if situation has changed. However, even with a fee, it won't be more than 3-4 EUR I suppose.

Beware, the entrance of the bunker is far from the entrance of the military base, some 800 meters.

[caption id="attachment_2516" align="alignnone" width="660"] ZIM-12 Russian Car[/caption]

This is a Zim 12 Russian car donated by Stalin to Enver Hoxha. Less than 22,000 were produced all in all and only 10 made it to Albania. This one is the only one remaining. The curators of the BunkArt are even having fun with it since they have put a traffic fine at the front window citing a broken light and parking on the sidewalk :D

[caption id="attachment_2514" align="alignnone" width="660"] Moto Guzzi[/caption]

This one's description was not too clear. It says that those bikes were used by the Italian Army during the 60s and then some were donated to the Albanian Army in 2002. I know Moto Guzzi is a great brand but hey, 40 years old bike belongs to collectors, not to an army. I bet Italians pushed the contract for their maintenance as well.

[caption id="attachment_2515" align="alignnone" width="660"] Entrance[/caption]

This is the entrance to the bunker. There are like 4-5 doors one after the other and the first ones are concrete and very thick. I guess the bunker was made to withstand a nuclear explosion in its front yard too...