(fun fact: Christopher Lee, who of course played Saruman in LOTR, was some sort of intelligence/special forces officer during WWII. He was also friends with our dear Yugoslavian beloved dictator, Tito. Lee’s records are still classified, but as he was fighting the Axis in the region, it is likely that he assisted the Partisans, and Tito, in their operations.)
So, there is this idea called “Urban Explorer.” It is sometimes referred to as UrbEx, or Tunnel Exploring. The general idea is exploring manmade structures that have since been abandoned. I didn’t know the name at the time, but my first experience with this (which some might just call trespassing?) was in Colorado in 2017. We didn’t get arrested then, so why not try it again?
Abandoned Military Airbase Zeljava
First stop was an abandoned airplane Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, which was “donated” by America. It was cool, but not the real show.
The real show is the old base.
It was built into a mountain, and was a secret. Like, super secret. The idea was similar to our NORAD. The base took 20 years to build, from 1948-1968, and cost 6 BILLION dollars. It had 5 runway strips, which was a huge amount for any airport at the time, and was built to withstand a nuclear blast the scale of Nagasaki. There was air, water, supplies, etc for 300 people to stay inside of the base for 60 days. Yugoslavia giveth (under Tito, who had it built) and Yugoslavia taketh away (when Milošević realized an internal war was imminent, he had all of the planes and equipment relocated to Belgrade, and then tried to blow up the base from the inside with 50 tons of explosives).
This is what is left. (Yes, I climbed into that hole. Don’t worry, I had a flashlight)
The inside is weird. It’s really cold, and really dark – probably because I’m inside of a mountain? You can see some weird remnants, like metal gates that were destroyed in the explosion.
Plumbing and electrical lines were run under the floor. There were some side chambers that had been for infrastructure, including a hallway for an elevator. They say that the elevator was forced up in the explosion and it still stuck up in the mountain, but I didn’t stand under it to see for myself.
Now you can see the “full” entrance, at entrance #2, from the inside looking outside. Weird shape, right? Well, the entrances were all designed to fit miG-21 fighter planes. Interesting drive thru operation, I guess.
On the other side of the hill in that last photo is Bosnia. Technically, if you go all the way through the tunnels, you wind up on Bosnian soil – which is illegal. They are not in Schengen and do not have open borders. They don’t have border patrol underground, but they apparently do often have officers at the opening, for anyone that decides to walk through.
We also took a look at the runways. Though you can’t really tell from the photo, the runways were also built to destruct – they were built with chambers on the sides for dynamite, to blow up/destabilize them. The idea when Tito built it is that if he needed to, he could blow them up so they couldn’t be used by outside invaders – he hadn’t ever thought about the internal fighting. The dynamite was used, so the runways are no longer structurally sound.
Details of the facility are still classified, so there is a lot that is still unknown. And technically, no one can buy or fix this. It’s somehow still technically owned by Yugoslavia (which no longer exists…) – the courts haven’t figured out how to deal with this yet, in particular on a site that crosses a border.
There is a fun conspiracy theory involving the US. No one knows where Tito got $6B to build this thing. And, people find it very suspicious that America suddenly figured out how to get a man on the moon, when we were losing the space race. The theory is that the facility was actually built much faster than the 20 years, paid for by the US – and we were working with Yugoslavian scientists, and maybe stealing some info from the Russians by way of Yugoslavian relations. We used the facility until ’68, when we were ready to move everything back stateside and suddenly figure out how to go to the moon in ’69. Once we were gone, it opened as Yugoslavia’s military base. There is apparently even a Croatian movie about it – Houston, We have a Problem!
https://cineuropa.org/en/film/307008/en/video/rdid/307008/rl/1/
From there I went to another adventure spot.
Partisan Hospital:
Tucked away in a steep ravine called ‘Pišin gaj I hiked up to the remains of the region’s Central Partisan Hospital. Founded in the spring of 1942 by Partisan doctor Save Zlatic , the hospital grew through the war to contain over 30 facilities and treated over 5,000 wounded and sick soldiers and civilians by the end of the war.
To be clear, it is not a hospital like you’re imagining. What they call the hospital are these crazy rough cabins. They didn’t have electricity – partly for fear of being seen at night – which meant surgery needed to be done by daylight.
The hospital complex was never discovered by any Axis forces. Though I couldn’t find any of them, there were underground segments of the hospital as well meant for evacuation during raids, which were never needed.
Around 1,000 Partisan fighters are also buried at grave sites around the hospital.
There is talk about trying to get this site as an UNESCO site, and turning it into a proper museum.
My final adventure stop of the day was nearby.
Petrova Gora
Technically, Petrova Gora is a hill range in this part of Croatia. But I’ve seen enough hills – what I wanted to see was a “spomenik.” A spomenik is, basically, a giant memorial, commemorating something. In this case, there are spomeniks all over Yugoslavia, honoring the Partisan fighters during WWII.
This one is called the Monument to the Uprising of the People of Kordun and Banija (though everyone just says the Petrova Gora Monument).
This one was made of concrete and steel (though a lot of the steel has been stolen) and was finished in 1981. The artist was a Yugoslavian sculptor named Vojin Bakić and at the time of completion, this was the largest postmodern sculpture in the world.
If you’re interested, there is a website about all of them, which apparently was made by an American who stumbled upon one and then became obsessed. Which I get, because they’re really magnetic.
https://www.spomenikdatabase.org
It was a very cool day, and I was not stopped once by the cops.
After all that, I had a quiet night of a bit more exploring in Zagreb.
Art in the City
Have I mentioned their art? It is everywhere. Some of it permanent – there are a bajillion statues – but some pop up overnight.
Traffic in the City
The first day, I was scared to go anywhere. Basically, the long street that my apartment is on is a main corridor in the city, and it has two-way tram traffic. I couldn’t find a crosswalk the first day, and didn’t know what to do.
Over the past few days, I’ve realized I can literally do whatever I want. Everyone yields to pedestrians – even the trams (though they might honk). There are technically not supposed to be cars in the street – but there is enough room between the two tram lines that cars/delivery vehicles can/do park. Cars and bikes also use the streets around/in front of/behind the trams. It’s anarchy – but I have not seen a single accident.
Music
I kid you not, I have heard Miley Cyrus “Flowers” 9,438 times since getting here. It is on every car radio, in every city. It is in every store, and every restaurant. Every. Where. I. Go.