Tank Base with Underground Garages E

The large grounds of a former military installation that housed a tank brigade of the Albanian army, tasked with defending the centre of the country. The brigade was equipped with Type-59 tanks and engineering vehicles.

The base occupies almost the entire western slope of a hill and consists of a flat open area and a cluster of tunnels driven into the hillside. The open area was used for parking vehicles outdoors, carrying out maintenance, and drilling personnel. It also contains several heavily dilapidated buildings, one of which dates from the Italian construction of the 1920s–30s and survives only as bare walls. The tunnels served as garages, a fuel store, and housed the brigade headquarters. There are fourteen tunnel-garages in total, plus four tunnels for the headquarters and stores. Each tunnel-garage could accommodate four to five tanks. Some tunnels are connected at their far ends by a wide passage with an unreinforced vault. In several garages, military slogans and maintenance instructions stencilled in paint are still preserved on the walls.

The territory has become somewhat overgrown with blackberries and other vegetation. Local residents now graze livestock on the area where tanks once stood. There is a chance they will object to your presence on the grounds.