September 2008
During the 1980s the central complex of Hanička was converted into a nuclear shelter. The subterranean rooms were converted to perform a variety of tasks necessary to surviving a nuclear attack. Below can be seen the first two doors into the complex.
The complex is quite labyrinthine with each section separated by rather long tunnels. The center and right pictures above are of a tunnel that stretched 185 meters.
The old vaults for food and ammo storage were filled with machinery for filtering air and water. The complex had its own well that tapped directly into ground water eliminating the need for water storage.
A few items remained from the hospital ward. Needless to say what was left didn't exactly inspire confidence in the resident medical care.
Light was a real problem for taking any photos. Usually whenever the tour guide lead us out of an area, he immediately turned off all the lights behind us. There weren't even exit lights. And he was the only one with a flashlight. The next two pictures give an idea of just how far underground the complex is. Here I am standing at the deepest level, pointing my camera up the stairwell.
Once you reach the top of that stairwell you still have another set to climb, four or five more stories.
Only then do you see sunlight coming in the empty gun ports.
The shafts leading up to the turrets descended two stories and could be accessed from both levels. And as with the other side, to get into the lower complex another series of heavy doors had to be passed
Finally, after walking about two kilometers underground we exited the other side. This bunker did not originally have an exit door but only a small hatch in case soldiers needed to escape. The tour guide explained to us that from the ledge above the gun ports to the roof of the bunker is solid concrete, nearly four meters thick.
Each gun turret had armor at a thickness of 18 cm.
After exiting the tunnels we had one final area to see. The main artillery bunker lay directly over the core of underground tunnels. However it has been impassible since WWII. The scars on the exterior of the building are the result of the Wehrmacht testing new weapons on the concrete. They believed that their weapons would destroy the structure and render it inaccessible. However none of their weapons breached the interior and in the end the Germans had to fill it with concrete to prevent entrance.
The hole in this turret armor was large enough to fit a golf ball. I saw no similar holes so I can only guess this was another weapon test.
