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Bunk’Art 1 (Tirana)

Florian Buechting Museums & Exhibitions No Comments

Bunk'Art 1

500 ALL
Bunk'Art 1
4.7

Rating

 4.7/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Huge bunker
  • Great museum concept and presentation

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Rather remote location
  • WiFi not working

Under the leadership of socialist Enver Hoxha, a massive number of bunkers has been built in Albania The German wikipedia page states a total of 200,000 new constructions during his leadership between 1972 and 1984 only. Two of these bunkers which are located in the heart of the capital Tirana are hosting historic museums nowadays, named Bunk’Art 1 and Bunk’ Art 2. In this posting, I deal with Bunk’ Art 1, which is located in the former large political leadership bunker of Hoxha. The bunker, which is having over one hundred rooms, took over this role as a museum in 2016. I visited it in November 2022.

 

 

Bunk’Art 1 – Location & Admission

The bunker is located underneath the Dajti Mountain. Thus, the bunker is rather close to the Dajti Ekspres cable car – in fact, the cable car is riding over the bunker. The access to the the museum is through a tunnel at Rruga Fadil Deliu street. The long tunnel is also illustrating how well hidden the huge bunker is hidden in the city. You can go there by bus – I however took a taxi which was very handy and was some 10 EUR from city center.

The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday, between 9:30 and 16:00. The admission to the museum is 500 Lek, roughly 4.50 EUR. You can also buy a combined ticket valid for both Bunk’ Art outlets for 8 EUR.

 

Bunk’Art 1 – The Visit

Bunk’Art 1 is typically described as a mixture of a historic museum and an arts museum. In general, the majority of the bunker is open to you. There is not a fixed way how to visit the different rooms and exhibitions per se, but as you enter it at the bunker’s highest point and leave at a lower point, there is a certain chronology. I would say, you run into four kinds of exhibits (typically located in a single room): first of all, you learn how the bunker is working technically, e.g. the air locks and the doors of the structures. A major part of the visit explains you Albanian history, roughly as of the 20th century.

Another important part of the rooms illustrates how life in the former leadership bunker was supposed to work, e.g. by having rooms, which are still equipped in a close-to-original way. Last but not least, there are rooms dedicated to arts and cultural reasons. With the large space the bunker is in fact offering, Bunk’Art 1 is able to give a really detailed overview. Thereby the museum is having original item, but also a lot of pictures and information, which is very illustrative. The information is thereby available in Albanian and English. Due to the large size of the place, I would at least recommend to block 90 minutes for your visit, plus the time you need to get there.

 

Very Impressive Exhibition

I have to give in that I am not at all an expert in Albanian history. Thus, I really loved the visit, which is having a nice leverage between texts and information transported by pictures, items and videos. There is also a major focus on military items on suppressing the population and terror by the governmental regime. On top of that, some solutions to run the bunker in an as-discreet-as-possible structure in the center of the Albanian capital.

Some dioramas are really impressing, like a military truck or a feature about an US plane. Bunk’Art 1 also teaches you about the Albanian bunkers I mentioned in the introduction. Another really memorable room is the large theater inside the bunker. It is in fact really used for cultural events here and then.

 

Bunk’Art 1 – Services

I visited Albania in the off-season. Bunk’Art 1 has an outdoor facility for souvenirs and a cafe-alike area near the theater. This area of the bunker also features toilets (which, of course, comes with some bunker-alike style). The attraction is also named to feature free WiFi within its premises. Unfortunately, I was not able to connect to it, thoughout the whole structure (as well as in Bunk’Art 2, by the way).

 

Bunk’Art 1 – My View

Bunk’Art 1 is absolutely impressing. I absolutely loved the visit. It tells so much about history, about humankind and is so shocking it’s very own way. The location is really quite on the outskirts of Central Tirana – but it is absolutely worth it. Definitely the best thing I did during my weekend in Albania!

 

 

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