There’s an “attraction” here in Tirana, called “Bunk’Art2. I naively thought it was an underground art display of Albanian history, but it was so much more: it was the Albanian version of their Holocaust museum. And it was sobering.

First off, the idea of HAVING bunkers— three quarter MILLION bunkers throughout the country– is staggering enough. For twenty years, until he died, their dictator, Enver Hoxha, ordered these bunkers built throughout the country. How many are there? Almost 6 per square mile. That was a lot of work to build, and a lot of money. The paranoid leader feared invasions from a host of foreign attackers, and the bunkers were designed to motivate the citizens to take up arms, hunker down, and defend their country. I have not been to the largest one, Bunk’Art1, which is nearby, and it is five-stories deep, with over 100 rooms. What I find especially sad is living in a country where that fear, that paranoia, would be part of your everyday world. For decades. For most of us the idea of a foreign invasion is unimaginable, but many generations and many countries have—and do—live with this threat every day.

Bunk’Art2 is a series of four or five long hallways, with small rooms on both sides, about the size of a normal secondary bedroom. They house displays of spying equipment, examples of records kept on “enemies of the state,” plus wall art that shows how perceptions can change when you remove yourself from the equation- in this case, day to day living under that fear of invasion. Many people supported him early on, bought into the vision, but later lived under repression and totalitarianism. He ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985, and though he may not have done as much damage or killed as many as other dictators, that is a truly long reign. What these people endured every day, for decades, until they were freed in 1992, I cannot imagine. Many of them still retain that psychological trauma.

Of all the Balkan countries I have visited, I considered Croatia the most “advanced,” meaning that they embraced western ways, English usage, capitalism, and tourism. Romania has done similar, and I think Albania will advance a long way in that direction in the years to come. It’s already drawing a LOT of outside visitors, foreign dollars, and expats, and many creative citizens of Albania have done clever things with those bunkers, including creating art galleries, restaurants, storage for a host of things, and street art.

Note: they do offer discounts for those over 60, regardless of residency