Tito’s bunker is the name for a nuclear shelter built on the directive of the President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This bunker was one of the most closely guarded military secrets of the former Yugoslavia.
The bunker, like in the movie, today is an attraction for many tourists. The public only learned about the existence of a huge atomic shelter, one of the largest of its kind in Europe, in 2000. This bunker was built in secret for 26 years! It was built from 1953 to 1979, hidden in the Zlatar mountain.
Looking from the outside, you can see only three ordinary houses surrounded by nature. However, those houses hid a secret about the largest military facility in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the third largest in the former Yugoslavia. 4.6 billion US dollars were spent on the construction. In the event of a nuclear war or some other danger, 350 of the highest political and military officials of the former Yugoslavia could fit in the bunker.
The real name for Tito’s bunker is the Atomic War Command, and in addition to being a nuclear bunker, it was also a military command center. The bunker is located in Konjic, a town in central Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It consists of an external part consisting of three smaller masonry buildings, tunnels that connect the external and underground parts of the building, which at the same time have the function of amortizing a nuclear impact, and an underground (protected from nuclear impact) part of the building, which has an area of 6,584 square meters and inside which is located 12 functionally connected blocks in which 21 infrastructure systems necessary for the functioning of the facility are installed and embedded.
For more than ten years after its completion, it was the most secret military installation in the country. All construction workers were carefully selected and checked, signed a contract of silence, and all staff members underwent the highest security check. After Tito died in 1980, the complex remained in a state of readiness.
Tito’s bunker in the present time could not be used as a shelter in case of a nuclear disaster – at the time the bunker was built, nuclear bombs were 20 to 25 kilotons strong, and today, when nuclear bombs are much stronger, this bunker would not be able to withstand a direct hit.
Tito’s bunker now serves as a meeting place for artists from the entire region, Europe, and the world and it is one of the largest and most important underground galleries in Europe. If you decide to visit Tito’s bunker, you will get a tour of the bunker lasting about 90 minutes for 11 euros.
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