About The Cold War Tunnel
The Cold War Tunnel in Gjirokastra is an underground tunnel and bunker complex that was built as an emergency shelter during the post World War II communist times, but is now a museum that can be visited with a guide. The entrance is at Çerciz Toppuli Square where you can also find the tourist information point where a guided tour can be arranged (You can’t enter and wander around the tunnels by yourself).
The tunnel complex was built underneath Gjirokastra Castle in the late 1970s under the communist dictator Enver Hoxha. After Albania’s breakup with the Soviet Union in the 1960s, Hoxha became so paranoid about being invaded, that he started to build bunkers and shelters around the entire country.
The tunnel complex is 800 meters long and has 59 rooms, with different functions, including rooms for government ministries, party elites, local government, a kitchen, power generation and even an air filtration room and a decontamination room in preparation of a nuclear attack. The complex is more or less in its original state with some of the furniture still there. This makes it less informative, but very real at the same time and a guided tour will give you lots of information in a 20-minute walk through the tunnels.
