Tito’s Nuclear Bunker in Konjic
Nuclear Bunker – one of Yugoslavia’s best kept secrets
Tito’s Nuclear Bunker, located under the mountain Zlatar near city of Konjic, was a top military secret until the ’90s. Built in secrecy from 1953 up to 1979, his purpose was to provide a safe shelter for former president of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito and 350 of his closest associates, in case of nuclear war. It was called ARK D0, and the only persons knew about it were four commanders in chief and thoroughly selected construction workers, who had to sign Confidentiality Agreement. Building it have costed around 4,5 billion $. It was the third largest investment ever in all of Yugoslavia. It could withstand nuclear strike 3 times more powerful than one in Hiroshima. This strategic object has 6.500 square meters and it is settled on 300 meters under the surface. Impressive, right? Imagine then how was it like to build it in secrecy!
If you looked from the outside, you couldn’t notice anything unusual. Just three regular houses next to each other, surrounded with nature. Nothing would gave away that those houses kept the largest military object in secrecy for almost 50 years. The bunker was the third most important military object in Yugoslavia. Other two were underground airport and air base Željava near city of Bihać and military harbor Lora in Split, Croatia. Building these three military objects have costed Yugoslavia over 18 billion $ !
Inside of a bunker
The bunker reminds on labyrinth with more than one hundred rooms and 1.5 meters thick walls. It consists of various conference halls, residential space, numerous offices and “presidential block”. All rooms are well preserved with fully maintained inventory which can be really interesting for everyone visiting it. So, in this object you can see how would president of Yugoslavia and one of the most powerful man of that time would live in case of nuclear war. Besides being a safe place to survive nuclear war, this center was supposed to be a center of military operations.
This object was designed to provide uninterrupted life for 350 people for six months. To demonstrate it to you, it is enough to mention that the bunker also had its own hospital with an operating room. But, it also had a big swimming pool, so besides the fact that you would be on safe, you could enjoy your time spent there! Bunker also had a cable TV, in time when no other city in Yugoslavia had one! The living conditions were ideal, with temperature adjusted to 21-23 °C and air humidity to 60-70 %. Pretty impressive again, right?
Even though the owner of this bunker is Ministry of Defense, it is firstly tourist attraction. Also, it is a host of artistic camp for artists from all over the world. In bunker you can find 50 works of modern art that have become the permanent setting of this facility.
So you should definitely look on it from a positive side. If you decide to visit this nuclear bunker in time of nuclear war, you will (probably) survive it. At least for a six months 🙂
