Abandoned Places

Beneath a hill crowned by a fortress and lighthouse lies an extensive network of tunnels and bunkers — four gun emplacements, a rangefinder post, and hundreds of metres of underground passages looking out toward Corfu.

A large, never-completed underground complex: two tunnel portals on a gorge cliff, with three parallel tunnels joined by a cross-passage. Wide, high-ceilinged, partly concrete-lined, partly flooded and collapsed — likely a planned workshop.

A vast post-apocalyptic ruin of a former fertiliser plant — utterly stripped bare yet strikingly impressive, with goats grazing freely among fig trees, apple trees, and blackberry bushes.

An old aerial ropeway stretching about 8 km from a quarry to an industrial zone, with nearly all its buckets pulled down and piled at the upper station — which is the most interesting spot.

An abandoned chrome mine — partially flooded near the entrance. The gallery can still be reached.

An abandoned coastal artillery battery with four gun emplacements, a rangefinder tower, and sweeping sea views — now hemmed in by resort construction on all sides.

An abandoned stone quarry reached by a rough road, heavily overgrown with blackberry. Conveyors, a crusher, a hopper for crushed stone and the office building all survive.

A standard artillery position consisting of several protected gun emplacements assembled from prefabricated elements — training inscriptions and reference charts survive on the interior walls.

A former military fuel storage facility in the Vlorë Bay area, built to supply patrol boats. Unguarded and open, with nature already reclaiming the interior.

Four spherical artillery bunkers standing right in the middle of a town cemetery, flanked by small mushroom bunkers — an utterly surreal sight.

A former district police station nestled in the scenic mountains of Shkodër — someone attempted to turn it into a hotel and campsite, but the project stalled and the building was left to decay.

A vast network of tunnels running beneath the streets of Kukes at a depth of around 20 metres, connecting key city buildings through hundreds of metres of concrete passages, shafts, and spiral staircases.

Three clusters of prefabricated concrete artillery bunkers built to defend the industrial zone on the outskirts of Elbasan — complete with original camouflage paintwork and artillerist's notes still legible on the walls.

A former military compound stretched along a river, with around fifteen abandoned buildings — mostly warehouse-like hangars, some missing their roofs. Locals graze sheep here, which makes finding a gap in the fence rather tricky.

A hilltop air defense position concealing an extensive underground bunker — chaotic tunnels, five firing positions, and three separate exits buried beneath the summit.

Seven or eight underground artillery shelters line the hillside east of Tirana, most heavily overgrown and stripped of metal — with a small observation post of mushroom bunkers on the neighbouring hill.

A former underground reserve command post of the Albanian army — one of the oldest bunker complexes in the country, predating even the famous Bunk'Art 1 museum. Two tunnels, a diesel generator shelter, and blast doors still in place.

A hilltop air defense position near Vlora, where gun platforms linked by tunnels coexist with olive groves, grazing livestock, and scattered AK-47 cartridges.

A completely deserted cluster of old stone houses with tiled roofs, heavily overgrown and frozen in time.

A large, partly abandoned hilltop village stretched along a road — stone houses, a closed school, a mosque, and the lingering traces of former lives.

A three-storey former dormitory of a trade school, partially embedded in a hillside, with common rooms, residential floors, and scenic balconies — left to decay mid-renovation.

A sprawling underground labyrinth of unknown affiliation hidden behind a ruined two-storey building, its tunnels lined with colourful plastic waterproofing — and sealed by looters who came for the rebar.

Military storage tunnels on a hillside, their concrete blast doors still standing — sheltered among peaceful olive groves with open access.

A recently closed station that doubles as a shrine to socialist modernism — with two abandoned trains out front you can climb aboard.