An abandoned military base, Albania

The Albanian island Sazan is a military zone that during the Cold War and the dictatorship of Enver Hodza was the biggest military secret and the most fortified part of Albania.
It was opened to the public in 2017.

The island is still considered a military zone, which during the Cold War could only be accessed if you were a military person or an engineer working on secret projects that were developed here.

Immediately after entering the small harbor and disembarking from the tourist boat that brought us from Valona, ​​the remains of the former base can be seen.

Island was the base of the Soviet Union in the middle of the Otranto channel that separates the Adriatic from the Ionian Sea, near many member states of the NATO pact (this is zone where the USSR kept its Whiskey class submarines).

Sazan was first under the control of the Italian fascist regime, which even before the Second World War placed cannons along the island and began to fortify this island. Sazan was turned into one of the most fortified areas of Albania during the communist period, filled with mushroom-shaped bunkers and shelters.

At its peak in the 1970s, the base housed more than 3,500 people, including civilians, families of soldiers who came with them. That is why a school, a kindergarten and two cinemas were built there together with a hospital.

Sazan Island is now mostly deserted.

However, the island's network of bunkers and tunnels remained intact. There are over 3,200 bunkers and other underground facilities here.

If you really try, you can see some of the entrances to the tunnels.

The island is still technically an operational military base. The soldiers on duty claim that they are still there ready to withstand a nuclear strike...

Indeed, Sazan is designed to withstand a nuclear attack. The rooms that exist on the island are still stocked with beds and kitchen supplies.
The base was mostly dismantled after the fall of communism in Albania in 1991. Today, what remains of the imposing military base is a series of abandoned and half-ruined buildings that look more like a ghost town.

There is no electricity, no water on the island.
Numerous bunkers with which this island is surrounded are increasingly overgrown with weeds and decaying like all the others that were built throughout Albania during the rule of the communist dictator Enver Hoxha.

The island of Sazan, which was the largest Albanian fortress, in future will become one of Albania's tourist attractions.