The Zlatar mountain in Bosnia and Herzegovina, near the town of Konjic, kept the biggest military secret of our former socialist homeland for decades.
In this forest environment, an atomic shelter was built 33 years ago, a facility called D-0 ARK, which was the main command post of the former JNA, writes the Sarajevo portal "Klix".
Apart from the workers who were selected according to the strictest criteria (and who, by the way, had to sign the Agreement in silence), only four ex officio commanders knew about the project.
The facility is popularly known as "Tito's Bunker".
Weld appearance
The view of the outside of the bunker is undoubtedly deceiving you: you see three ordinary houses surrounded by nature.
However, for more than 50 years, those houses hid a colossal military facility, which was the third largest in the former SFRY.
The first is, of course, the Željava underground airport near Bihać, and the second is the Lora war port near Split. The construction of the facility lasted 26 years, from 1953 to 1979, and cost 4,6 billion dollars.
Structure of "Tito's Bunker"
"Tito's Bunker" consists of three parts.
The first one is visible and is called the camouflage part, and it consists of three facilities: a surveillance residence, a facility for close security of the former president of the SFRY, and a facility intended for technical support personnel.
When you pass through the corridor of the first house, three 1,20-meter-thick metal doors open, behind which there is a 202-meter-long tunnel that leads you to the heart of the atomic shelter - at a depth of 280 meters.
Tunnels connect the masking part with the third part of the facility - the atomic shelter, which can withstand a 20-kiloton nuclear attack.
The walls of the tunnel are made by hand, the material is wood. The entire facility is illuminated with 6.000 neon bulbs.
The third part of the building has the shape of a horseshoe: it is the protected part, because it houses the protection systems, the fire protection system, the nuclear shock protection system, the air conditioner, etc. It is divided into 12 blocks.
The most significant are blocks 6 (communications), 8 (Tito's block), 9 (the lungs of the building - air conditioning), 10 (oil tanks) and 11 (water).
Ideal conditions for a six-month stay
In the event of a nuclear attack, the bunker could accommodate 350 people from the highest military and political leadership of the former SFRY.
They could spend six months in the bunker without any contact with the outside world, because it contains everything necessary for a normal life during that time interval.
The bunker occupies an area of 6.854 square meters, has more than 100 bedrooms with comfortable beds, two large conference rooms, five operation centers with direct telephone connections to the presidencies of the federal republics, cable television, two kitchens, five large toilets, a crypto-center, a hospital with an operating room...
The facility also contains a large number of rooms with a total of 21 maintenance systems. It contains two tanks with 50 tons of oil, a pool with 170 cubic meters of water, drinking water and technical water from a natural well located in the mountain. Each system has an alternative, in case the first one fails.
Tito's residence in the bunker is elite equipped. It consists of five rooms: the room for the secretary and parties leads to Tito's office, which is connected to the bedroom, and from it you enter the room of the first lady of the former Yugoslavia, Jovanka Broz, while the last room is for rest.
The temperature in the bunker is between 21 and 23 degrees Celsius, and the air humidity is between 60 and 70 percent, which can be considered ideal conditions for life.
There is an emergency exit from the facility, which is not marked on the bunker map - it leads to the hill above the facility 170 meters high, which you can use to reach the relay hub on Zlatar Mountain.
General Kukanjac: Destroy everything you can't carry
Since the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, negotiations began to be held about who will own this military facility.
General Milutin Kukanjac, then commander of the 7th Army District of the JNA, ordered, on the night between May 7 and 8, 1992, to destroy the ARK facility.
"Destroy everything you can't carry," was the order that was supposed to activate 4.500 kilograms of explosives, which had already been placed and which would destroy the bunker to the ground.
But thanks to retired colonel Sherif Grabovica, that did not happen. He secretly managed to pull out all the wires for the explosives and the object was saved.
Members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina took it over on May 11, 1992 and, thanks to the supplies that were in it, the defense forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina procured for themselves supplies of oil, medicine, food, blankets and everything needed for survival.
After the army - artists and tourists
Today, Tito's bunker is a meeting place for artists from the region, Europe and the world.
Last year, from May 27 to September 27, the first Biennale of Contemporary Art was held there.
It gathered 44 artists from 18 countries of the world, and more than 15.000 visitors were recorded.
Then 50 works of art were installed, which became the permanent exhibition of this object.
Five countries participate in financing the project: Serbia, Montenegro, Turkey, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The second Biennale will be held on April 26 of the following year.
Today, five soldiers take care of the building, which belongs to the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gallery
Bonus video:
